Day 31: Old Mt Bryan East School Hut to Black Jack Hut 32km

Another early rise as a 30 k + day to do. I don't mind so much if the first couple of k's are a road walk as it means the hour till daylight and the looking for signs in scrub is not as much of a problem. Although the brand new signs glow in the torch light. But they are not all new.

The walk finally leaves the bare paddocks and goes through the Carooma Creek Conservation park. This is a reclaimed old station and the gorge used to have a road built through it and you can see the effects of the feral goats in the hills. But at least is was something else to look at.

The walk at the back end of the park is through some scrub bt at least its not sheep paddocks. From the start of the Conservation Park you can see the rain hasn't passed too far over Mt Bryan. It is very dry. Then like always the interest ends and back on a fence line kicking aside sheep shit.

I made the Carooma Creek shelter by about 10.30am and decided to push on to the Black Jack Hut The Carooma shelter has been rebuilt by the Parks and Wildlife people to a decent size. It would have been one of the better stops, however in July they had dropped a new/old donga that was donated to the friends of the Heysen at Black jack so at least there is a room with a door.

Not much else to say today and I think I may be getting a bit jaded without having a rest as I am just getting in a walking zone and covering as much ground as possible. When I look at the lack of photographs I can tell I wasn't paying much attention to what was going on around me.

 

Day 30: Camp site to Mt Bryan East School Hut 35km

Got up and it was cold cold cold and everything was wet. There is a way to pack up the tent that means the last things I have to do is the groundsheet and the wet outer fly of the tent. Everything else is packed into the pack whilst sitting under cover. I am either tired or just getting old when it takes a few rocks on my ever diminishing backside to get the momentum to stand up.

Moved off this morning to a walk in the wet grass of the paddocks towards Hallett. My gloves frosted over after I started walking which was just as the sun was coming up so I think it got colder after I got up. After a couple of kilometres it was a walk down a couple of roads towards the town. It's the last straight stretch of road that made me realise how slow walking can be. You can see the silos of the town down the road but what would take you 5 or 10 minutes in a car is a hour trudge as nothing seems to get closer as you look up.

At the end of the road the trail takes a right to the old Hallett Rail Station which has been converted to a hikers hut or turn left for bacon and egg rolls and coffee. The hut is about 1 kilometre from the coffee and 500 metres from the intersection. You may need to forgive but I turned left and never set foot in the old rail station.

The general store had coffee, breakfast, fire and conversation with something other than a stuffed monkey. After the bacon and egg roll I spied a packet of Arnott's Lemon Crisp biscuits on the shelf. Not a packet of Monte Carlos but what is a scruffy beggar to do but get another coffee and the biscuits and sit down and demolish half a packet. The belt was loosened one notch, pack on and then off to tackle the walk over Mt Bryan.

The walk is a pleasant stroll along a road until it turns off through a property to wander up the Mundy Valley. All the while you can see the hills rising. Then the climb starts and goes up and up and up. Just when you get up you go across and then look at the climb that goes up and up and up Mt Bryan and guess what you get as you start to climb but the wind. Some of you may sympathise and understand when in this ever present cold wind going for a pee becomes a problem when I am sure body parts deliberately hide and don't want to come out and do the deed. Sending in cold fingers doesn't help.

Mt Bryan was named after a bloke in one of the explorers party that became lost and died of thirst. A comforting thought. After getting to the top I didn't find too may areas where I could get out of the wind, so took a few quick snaps then moved off the top into the lee of the wind. I am glad I came up the way I did as the way down looked like I should be abseiling not walking. At least is was quick . If I had fallen I am sure it would have been quicker.

Once down the hill its a fast pace down a road to the East Mt Bryan school that's been converted to a hikers hut. There are still blackboards on one side and three rooms on the other side that belonged to the school teacher.

I made a cup of tea and ate the rest of the biscuits had a sweet curry and rice roll-up in front of a fire and set up my bed on a double mattress ad had the best nights sleep on the trail so far while the wind howled. It might have been I was well fed or is the 3rd or 4th approx 30 k day. My last zero day was Melrose which was a week ago and with 2 more days it will be 10 or 11 days without a break.

Day 29: Spalding to Campsite 35 km

I knew the day had a forecast of strong winds and rain but as some Scotsman says there's no such thing as bad weather just bad preparation. So I donned all my wet weather gear including the pants and headed out to a fairly beautiful morning if not a bit blowy.

The walk out of Spalding is through some fields and then back onto the channel. After walking for nearly two hours the channel meets up with the highway again and I saw the 5k to Spalding sign. I checked my InReach and I had done nearly 7.5k to reach the same point...Oh well...on I go. Onto some back country roads through the farming areas to reach the Brown Hill Range.

This was where the map said I would be following a Stone wall for 12 kilometres across the ridge of the Range. The wall is interesting in that, why? I can see if they were picking up rocks and getting them off the paddocks but to actually stack them into a wall?. Fence maybe. A lot of it had fallen down but it did have enough left that kangaroos sheltered behind them out of the wind. If I wanted to sit then all the best bits had knee deep poo behind it so they had been used for a long time. The wind at that stage had picked up to the expected 35kph and I was getting it at least slightly from the rear. So I hoiked the pack up and plodded my way up and down the paddocks for the next 12 kilometres to what is marked as a camp spot at Whistling Trigg.

It wasn't until I got behind the water tank at the Trigg that I realised how much I must have been leaning to the left into the wind. As soon as I got into the lee of the tank I stumbled left and hit the seat. I stopped there to eat and fill up with some water as there was no way I could camp anywhere near there and it would have to be a very special day when I think any one could. It is just so exposed. The map said there was a quarry further down a road where the track eventually drops off the ridge line.

It was such a pleasure to get out of the wind on the road over the range. The quarry was a bust as it was still a working quarry so I trudged on further looking for anything that promised to be flat and protected. The storm they predicted was coming in and all I had for the next 10 kilometres or so was roads. It looked like I was going to set-up the tent on the side of the road, Not a bad problem just not ideal. But the weather held off long enough for me to get to a station track that at least let me get about 1 or 200 metres off the road. I was looking at some spots and even contemplating walking all the way to Hallett which was another 4 hours away when a thunder clap decided it was time to set up.

I was about 5 minutes too slow as I got drenched whilst setting the tent up but at least I was better protected from the wind. A little bit of hail and the temperature dropped dramatically and I froze all night. Had managed to walk about 35 kilometres so sleeping wasn't much of a problem.  

Day 28: Curnow's Hut to Spalding 32.45km

Wow into my fifth week and still a long way to go. 

It wasn't the best nights sleep as the fire in the pot belly didn't quite work out. It wasn't drawing up the flue well so a lot of smoke went into the hut and subsequently the fire alarm would randomly go off. In the end I had to let the fire go out and sleep in the cold.

Woke up fairly early ie in the dark and packed up. I had read the logbook at the hut and people coming north had mentioned the lovely walk through the Never Never Creek. So with the head torch on I started down the track out of the Forestry area. I hit the start to the creek just on sun up and its not a bad walk following a road through farmland with the creek on the left. Then you walk down the driveway of a farm and I kept looking back to make sure I had read the sign correctly as it appeared to go straight to the farmhouse. 

You pass within 20 metres of the front door before dropping down through the creek and out another paddock. Feels funny at 7am passing someones door on a farm no less. Two lambs came racing out to see if I had their morning breakfast I suppose. They abandoned me pretty quickly when they saw I had nothing. The trail then continues to wander down through sheep paddocks following the Never Never Creek which is now just a cleared erosion gully. 

Now this is a fairly uninspiring walk all the way to Bundaleer Weir. There is a campsite here but I was moving onto Spalding. Johnathon and Justin (Two blokes I met at Murray Town) talked about two cows that wander into this campsite and drink from the water tank that has the tap handle on it. They watched as the cow would use its tongue to turn the tap and then slurp the water. Smart enough to turn it on but not that smart to turn it off. The tap was on and the tank was empty. There is another tank with a push tap that slowly turns itself back off automatically. I tried to remove the handle but in this day and age of ultra light hiking who carries a multitool. When I left the camp you cross a bit of a swamp and then hit the road to the Weir. Along the road were these plastic thingies which I worked out were the plastic protection on top of the guide posts along the road. The cows had pulled them off gave them a bit of a chew and spat them on the ground. I picked them up and put them back on the guideposts as I walked past to give them something else to do next time they pass. 

I then walked past the Weir proper and onto the bank beside the Bundaleer channel. Another feat of engineering that I haven't been able to find to much about yet but it looks like when the Weir got to a certain level water was released into the channel to take it further east. I was going to follow this channel all the way to Spalding. Whilst the inspiration disappears quickly at least the channel was contoured and the walk whilst long and boring with the wind blowing constantly it was not overly taxing except in length. I walked into Spalding about 3pm and had a Pepsi Max then onto the hotel for a shower, beer and feed. I had a resupply box here and redid the pack for the next leg.