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Journal: |
My plans to listen to the AFL game on the radio were abandoned
after five minutes last night when sleep suddenly seemed the more
attractive option. (Fortunately, I heard on the radio in the
morning that Geelong had won without my help.) I had intended
to get up at 6:30am, but it was cold outside in the narrow valley
and I decided that rather than pack stuff up damp and put on some
damp clothes (it was a mistake to wash them out last night), I would
leave rising to 7am in the hope that sun would hit the valley floor
before it was time to leave. Alas, that was a foolish hope and
I starting hiking in very cool conditions wearing a freezing cold
damp T-shirt at about 9:15am (no more washing gear unless I'm
confident I can get it dry for the next day in these conditions).
It didn't take too long to warm up and I enjoyed the early
morning light while hiking through some silent eucalypt forest on a
grassy foot-trail that gradually climbed higher into the sun.
My day was to be spent hiking through State Forest and I soon
emerged on a forest road bordered on one side by eucalypt forest and
the other by pine plantation. There were some lovely aromas.
The State Forests don't allow logging near streams and rivers and
the Hume & Hovell Track did its best to exploit this rule by
following streams for much of the day.
In late morning, my
route diverted from a forest road and became a narrow, and at times
technical, foot trail descending by the side of a cascading stream
through a steep narrow rocky gorge, and then ascending alongside
another stream in a steep-sided valley to pass, along the way,
Pompey Pillar, a slender rock spire in the forest. It was slow
going and quite hard work, occasionally needing hands to climb
tricky rocky sections, but never dangerous and always scenic.
I had it to myself apart from some loud unidentified birds at
various times.
There followed some more walking along forest
roads past pine plantations before my route again became single
track and dropped to the quite large Micalong Creek. The
remainder of the day was spent following the creek upstream.
At first it was wide and rocky and cascaded down some small
picturesque falls with large dark pools. I stopped for a break
at the Micalong Creek Campsite, which was adjacent to a forest road,
and was disappointed to find a lot of litter, empty beer cans and
spirits bottles and some spent rifle cartridges. One of the
fire-places still had a log smouldering, so I suspect the culprits
were camped there last night. I was happy to have missed them.
The path continued to follow Micalong Creek upstream past some
spectacular falls and pools and was still slow going but very
pleasant in the waning sunshine. Eventually the trail reached
a sort of plateau and Micalong Creek became smaller and darker
winding its way along a flat almost boggy ferny valley. My
route followed a forest road bordered on the other side by a
recently cleared pine plantation. Being Saturday, no work was
being done, but there were plenty of signs of recent logging
activity.
Around 3:30pm I reached the Bossawa Campsite, which
was about 50 metres from the forest road, but considerable effort
had been taken to make it inaccessible to vehicles and it was much
cleaner than the other campsite I had passed. The elevation is
higher here, but still no mobile phone reception. There are no
high hills around so I'm hoping it will get the sun earlier in the
morning. I have a longer day tomorrow to reach a campsite near
where I have hidden a drum of food to see me through another five
days. I better get there, because I will be out of food.
I'm a bit disappointed with my daily mileage at present, but the
amount of light is a limiting factor and my body is still getting
used to the hiking life and large pack.
It was totally dark
by 5:45pm and I finished updating my diary before cooking dinner.
While eating I heard a couple of gun shots not too far away and
then, about twenty minutes later, heard vehicles and the reflection
of headlights on the trees. I turned off my headlamp and
watched the approaching vehicles which passed along a forest road
about 100 metres to the north of where I was camped. The front
vehicle was set up for spotlight shooting with spotlights on the cab
roof and a couple of people (presumably with rifles) standing in the
back of the ute and the second vehicle followed along behind with
spotlights also shining bright. Both vehicles sounded like
they had souped-up engines and they ploughed across the Micalong
Creek and gradually disappeared into the forest to the north.
Shortly after I heard more shots. Hopefully they were shooting
rabbits (I have seen a few) and not kangaroos. I don't know if
spotlight shooting from the back of vehicles is legal, but I suspect
not.
I went to bed around 8pm and wasn't disturbed again.
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