I posted this to another
forum about 2 or 3 months ago but don't think I've posted it here - it may be of interest to some and I think this area is largely unaffected by the fires.
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Just returned from a six day trip across the High Country. Had a great time with no real dramas.
Day 1 – Melb to Benambra and on to a
campsite on
Limestone Creek. Nice grassy
campsite with enough water flowing in the creek for showering etc – not enough flow to drink. Heard a few
brumbies and wild dogs nearby and about 3am one of the
brumbies came very close to the
camp, he seemed to be a bit annoyed to find us there.
Day 2 – Continued NE on
Limestone Creek Track climbing all the time – had to do a bit of scrub hopping to avoid a large fallen tree which was too big for my chainsaw. Track condition was reasonable but rocky. Turned left onto McCarthys Track and continued to climb, up to around 1200m by now. Turned right (north) onto
Davies Plain Track and continued to climb to a maximum altitude of 1720m. The sky is vivid blue at this height and the air crisp. Snow Gums and wispy alpine grasses abound. Track condition is poor in
places and very rocky with lots of sharp sugar bag sized rocks. Continued to Davies Plain Hut. Nice spot with a clean hut – the only mountain hut I’ve seen which I would actually consider sleeping in, in preference to my swag. Still on
Davies Plain Track begin the descent towards the
Murray River at
Tom Groggin. Hear a funny noise and spend about a minute wondering what it is – decide to stop and
check the tyres – front left tyre now more holes than rubber. Discover that I should have checked whether bottle jack (with which I replaced the OEM scissors jack) would fit under vehicle with flat tyre; it won’t! About one hour and 2lt of perspiration later continue journey. Steep descent to
Tom Groggin and ford the Murray without any problems.
Lovely grassy
campsite at TG next to the river, unfortunately accessible by 2WD from the NSW side so have to tolerate youngsters in ute setting up 50m away (they were OK really, I just like to
camp alone). Was attacked by a kangaroo for failing to provide it with a biscuit.
Day 3 – Continue into
Jindabyne on bitumen and take the chair lift up Mt Kosciuszko then walk to The
Lookout. Discover I am only half as fit as I think I am. Offer to take photographs of couple with their camera and spend 10 minutes thoughtfully lusting after the female – and I’ve only been in the bush 3 days!
Continue to Thredbo (noon Sat) and try to buy replacement tyre, tyre
places closed, no tyres available until Monday morning, hhhhhmmmmm…? Decide to stay with plan and head south on the Barry Way back towards Vic. The Barry way is a beautiful drive, although a steep mountain road (downhill if going north to south) with hairpin bends and zero margin for error if you want to avoid sheer 300m drops! It reminded me of the Alpine roads of Europe with scenery just as beautiful. Although much of it is dirt it would be driveable by 2WD (probably not in the wet) but make sure your brakes (and brake fluid) are in excellent condition before setting out. I used low range for large chunks of it to minimise brake usage. Had trouble finding a decent
campsite and ended up at Willis just over the border in Vic – DSE type site with tables and about 150m back from the
Snowy River. No one else around , thankfully, but not a good site really.
Day 4 – Continued on to Seldom Seen and, after stopping at the service station for petrol, wondering around calling “Hello” for about 10 minutes discovered the place must have been named after the proprietor. Good job I had enough fuel without a refill. Was hoping I might be able to buy a tyre here but no joy.
Headed on to McKillops
Bridge, another beautiful drive along a mountain road. Stopped to take a look at
Little River Gorge – impressive. No
sign of the waterfall though. Arrived at McKillops and began the search for the beautiful
campsite by the river which I know I must have missed the last time I was here…. After about an hour of searching decided all the campsites here were crap and the least bad was at Bulls Flat on the Deddick River about two km from the
bridge. Fortunately someone had already saved me the trouble of removing the barriers which the DSE (or Parks?) had erected to ensure anyone coming here in a vehicle (how else!? Helicopter!?) couldn’t actually drive to the
camping area but had to stop 25m away and carry all their gear across.
Found a spot in the Deddick River about 1m deep stripped off and had a beautiful swim/paddle/laze around for an hour or so. Made an excellent
camp oven stew for dinner.
Day 5 – As I had no spare wheel I decided not to head south down the Deddick Trail as was my original plan (I’ve done it before anyway) but to take the bitumen to
Bruthen and wonder across in the direction of Deptford to
camp at a spot I know on the Nicholson River. Although some 4WDing involved this area is far less isolated than the Deddick Trail so getting a
puncture would not be a disaster.
Day 6 – With that mixed feeling of sadness at leaving the bush and it’s simple lifestyle behind but looking forward to the comforts of
home I packed up for the final time in and headed west to
Melbourne.
Much of my bush time is spent gold prospecting so it was really good to get out simply for leisure and relaxation. Setting up and taking down
camp on a daily basis is a bit of a pain but it means you get to cover a lot more ground and see much more. Total distance covered was 1212km.
Mike Harding
mike_harding@fastmail.fm