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.