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Australian Alps Walking Track - 2011 Diary Dave's Website AAWT 2011 Overview Schedule Pictures Map Diary
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Day 10 Date: Thursday, 24 March 2011 Kilometres: 22.6 Total kilometers: 210.2 AAWT Animals: birds People: Trail-clearing crew and one 4WD Weather: Mostly overcast with some fog, rain and drizzle Campsite: Selwyn Creek Road Camp location: http://maps.google.com/maps?q=-37.04101,+146.94891 Pictures: no pictures, iPhone stopped working
I got going about 8:45am. It had rained overnight and all my stuff out "drying" was saturated. It continued drizzling through breakfast and almost everything was either wet or damp, including my sleeping bag. I rugged up in all my wet and cold weather gear and started hiking for what should have been an easier day than yesterday. The old firetrail was overgrown and I quickly got saturated again, though it was still easier walking than yesterday. However, sadly, in mid-morning on one of the more overgrown parts of the firetrail, I missed a sharp left turn onto another overgrown old firetrail and continued straight ahead down a very difficult and dense wet scrubby descent. I reached a saddle and worked out I had gone off course. After crashing around for probably two wasted hours, I eventually made it back to the missed junction. I suspect I'm not the first to miss this turn. There were signs of others having crashed around in the same scrub - broken branches, scuffed logs, etc. It was extremely disheartening and tiring and I didn't reach the Barry water tank (put out for hikers on this remote and usually dry section of the AAWT) until 1pm when I should have been there by 11am. I was VERY unhappy, not to mention cold and wet. While having a 15 minute break, I realized I could hear a chainsaw going in the distance. Not long after, I was surprised by a worker who was the lead man of a trail clearing crew from Mt Beauty Fire Station. He was a very nice and knowledgeable young guy and we chatted for about 15 minutes during which time we were joined by a second chainsaw guy. I had seen a chainsaw blade stuck in a partially-cut log a kilometer back and they said they had to leave it there a week ago. I continued on down the still very overgrown firetrail, though with fallen trees now cut and making life a bit easier when, about 15 minutes later, I could hear a loud brush-cutter getting closer and closer from the other direction through the very dense scrub as I muscled through. In the end, there was a brief pause in the noise and I shouted I was coming through, much to the surprise of the guy wielding the brushcutter. More chatting, and I thanked them all for their work. A little later, I met a group of Australian Conservation Volunteers - four backpackers, three girls and a guy, three of them foreign, and a supervisor - clearing the cut brush off the trail. They were very pleased to meet someone actually using their cleared trail. I enjoyed their cleared trail for the next kilometer or two until I joined the Selwyn Track which was much easier walking. Along here I encountered a guy driving a new-looking 4WD with a baby strapped into a child seat in the front passenger seat looking bemused by the whole thing. The weather began clearing a little and I hung some things on the outside of my pack to dry, but it was soon raining again. I left the nice, though hilly, firetrail to climb Selwyn Mt South (1398m) which was a wet steep ascent into the clouds. Pretty country, though, with long grass, open snow gum woodlands and ghostly big boulders in the mist. After a short descent, I made the (poor) decision to follow the official AAWT route over Mt Selwyn (1424m) rather than taking a slightly longer firetrail alternative I could see on the map. It was getting late and I should have dodged the "faint trail" descent that followed Mt Selwyn, especially since it was in cloud and not much higher than Selwyn South. Predictably, I lost the faint trail and had trouble orienting myself because of the fog. I ended up crashing around on the steep and difficult wet scrubby slope for 45-60 minutes. Eventually, I climbed back to where I should have been and carefully made the descent to a road. It was already 6:30pm and I covered the remaining distance along a firetrail to Selwyn Creek Road, where my next food dump was, by 8pm, just on dark. I found the drum easily and repacked food and then ate dinner (and food dump treats) by headlamp. I didn't wash for the second night in a row and wore damp clothes to bed in the hope they would dry a little. I'm hoping to cover the 30km to Mt Hotham/Davenport Village without problems tomorrow and then get a room for two nights and dry everything out. Everything is damp and it's still drizzling a little outside. |
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