Finally after all this horrible years I managed to visit some of my favorite
places in Alpine
park. Gee, I have not been there for 3 long years!
What a depressing feeling, should I say! Lots and lots of wood been burn out. And although there are abundant evidences that Mother Nature able to recover herself, it is still obvious that it takes quite a bit of time. Really in hope that as least this year will be fire-free.
Out plan was very simple – go to
camping spot at the bottom of Bindery Rd, next day cross mountain via
Picture point and go down to
Licola where have another
camp nearby
Wellington bridge before going home following day. Not so easy!
First there are *LOTS* of
track closed after fire and I really can advise now to check before you go, even if you track appears to be simple and drawn in bold red on map. Our first attempt to get to
Picture point failed because big trunk closed way. And although I have chain saw I still decided to turn back – it would easy take me 4 hours to cut it and I new that there is another way. On our accent to
Picture point we have not seen anyone, only burnt huts. On the top, where walking track starts we saw lonely Forester, very new by appears. I am still curious how they manage to get there on stock Forester – on our way down I saw scratches left by poor car everywhere and some of them quite decent. How much stupidity (or money) one needs to have to continuing going up after bottoming car several times is beyond my understanding.
On way down we saw only one group of people and I was stupid enough not to ask them where they came from. I thought that only several kilometers of quite easy road left before “Alpine Highway” to
Licola starts. And indeed we reach it very quickly and been at
Wellington bridge at 3:00 pm. I even start to think not to
camp here, but rather go to
Melbourne and sleep in my bed. How naive!
Wellington Bridge was closed and
sign said they plan to reopen in sometimes in spring next year! Later we discover that road from
Licola to the bridge is blocked and impassable because of flood damage. I really feel sorry for
Licola people – they going to miss quite a bit of income from tourism – those
parking spots at
Wellington Bridge was incredibly nice and popular. Ok, authorities can’t repair road in one day, but why do not cat
river crossing and temporarily mark the road as “4WD only” truly beyond my understanding.
Ok, we have to turn back and there was two choices for us – either go all way back (not much excitement to do same exercise twice), or go to East. Problem with second route was that I did not have any maps of this region simply because I was not plan to go here! But we saw on our last map big thick red line at the end of which was arrow “29 km to Hurstwood” (not sure about place name) and we decide to try our luck. Another naive decision!
Up until morning everything was OK – we progress
well and manage to
camp on Horseyard Flat (not sure about name) – what a gift! I recon that this is the finest
camp spot in whole Alpine! But in the morning after only 4 km of driving we hit
intersection with “
Road Closed”
sign in our direction! Wow! This became exciting – I never been here and do not have any map!
Fortunately enough last
camping spot we were sharing with group of happy pensioners who was happily traveling around. They have a map – not greatest, but better then nothing – from which I managed to make some photos by my digital camera. Truly this is first time ever in my life when I recon digital camera has advantage over film – as least I was able to continue by using my camera as a reference. Fellow also advised me that most direct route would be Billy Goat Track.
I do not know who is Billy, but lets me assure you that this is Track of Mad Goat. It so steep is not a joke – somewhat 1200m drop during 5 km! And during this time there was even one accent to Helipad. We were incredibly lucky that there was no rain in two days or so; otherwise I probably still would sit in Alpines. But as least I have some reward – this Track of Mad Goat worth to drive indeed. Although it took me around 2 hours to complete 5 km trip.
Conclusions (for traveling Alpine these days).
Nowadays, as least up until they clear fire damage check road closure before you go. Do not assume anything, does not matter how obvious it seems.
Have fuel as least twice of your needs – I was lucky enough to have idiotic religious habits to refill everything “up until lid” at last petrol station. Would you bother to add 90kg of weight to your car if you have 170L of diesel for one day of simple driving? I did, despite my wife protested and said that we can refill in
Melbourne much cheaper. With total of 260L I could easy manage another day or two, but should I been in my old 60 Cruiser with 90L stock
tank, now I would probably been carrying jerry cans with diesel to Helipad by Mad Goat Track!
Get all maps with you even if you do not plan go there. Indeed not much weight required and you can save yourself from “driving by photocamera”. Not worst scenario actually, but you need to relay on luck to be able to shoot damn thing!
Have emergency food. Dried and canned stuff probably not such tasty, but does not take much space. We could easy stuck for another day and we would have to starve then. (Actually probably not such a bad idea, as least for me. LOL!)
Thanks for reading.
Cheers.