Journal:
I peered out
the motel window when I woke to see it raining
lightly. Curses. However, by the time I
left at 7:15am it had stopped but was still
threatening. I started walking out of town
along the Tooma Road, optimistic that some early
morning traveller would pick me up. An hour
later, five kilometres out of town and still on
foot, I gave up and crossed to walk against the
traffic and resigned myself to a long day on foot.
I wanted to reach Munderoo Campsite where I had
secreted a food drum with enough supplies to see me
through to Albury and the end of the trip. It
was already going to be a long day, without the
unplanned nine kilometre warm-up. I'll admit I
could have tried to pressure someone, such as the
motel owner, to give me a lift, but I prefer to be
independent.....and suffer the consequences.
I finally reached the Hume & Hovell Track at Henry
Angel Trackhead, the point where I had left the
trail on Saturday, at 9am and stopped for a 10
minute break before "starting" my day's hiking.
It was raining very lightly, but not really enough
to get me wet. The trail picked up where it
had left off, following Burra Creek downstream
through open pasture and various goldmining sites
dating back to 1876. The miners had done quite
a lot of work to drain what was a swamp and increase
the flow rate of Burra Creek for sluicing by
straightening it through blasting channels and
tunnels through rock. Very impressive work and
still lots of evidence by the trail.
After an hour, I dropped my pack at a trail
intersection
and quickly climbed up a side trail to Big Hill
Lookout on the side of the hill from which Hume &
Hovell had first seen the Australian Alps.
Sadly for me, the day wasn't so clear with lots of
low-hanging cloud obscuring the distant mountains,
but the nearer views were clear and spectacular.
It was worth the detour. I walked back to my
pack and then the trail left the farmland behind and
descended through forest to a shaky suspension
bridge across Tumbarumba Creek. Then began a
long and steady climb into Bogandyera Nature Reserve
that certainly slowed my pace, but wasn't too tough.
Finally the trail reached and followed a ridge which
gave glimpses through the trees into the Tumbarumba
valley below.
It was
pleasant forest walking for an hour or so before a
steady descent through the forest and into the next
rural valley and Mannus Lake. The latter
seemed to be a bit of a misnomer as it wasn't much
more than a large stream, but I could see the area
which would be covered by water in better seasons.
The trail followed Mannus Creek through pretty
pasture land offering some nice rural views.
However, the peaceful scene was somewhat disturbed
by irregular air-gun shots from a distant orchard,
presumably designed to scare off predatory birds.
The trail then followed a road bordering a pine
plantation as it headed north and my feet began
reminding me that they had gone far enough for one
day. I had done about 31km, with about 14km to
go, and it was past the time I would normally have
stopped on this trip. I tried to remember
other days on other hikes when I had ended up doing
big kilometres and that helped a bit as I tried to
mentally string together milestones on those hikes
and other details. Some of those days were
definitely tougher than today.
I had a break at Mannus Campsite adjacent to a
road that would have taken me back to Tumbarumba,
then set off for my last 12km. After crossing
the road the trail went through a pine plantation
and then back to pasture land where huge mobs of
kangaroos were grazing. Then began a long
steady climb into Mundaroo State Forest, mainly pine
plantation, as the sun began setting to my right.
For a while the sky was clear and brilliant stars
and a half moon emerged to offer some light. I
had my last break at 5:30pm and donned my headlamp
as it soon became too dark to tread carefully,
though there was enough light to see the forest and
farmland I passed. The last kilometre or two
was steeply downhill on a slippery fire-trail and
was quite slow. I was well and truly ready for
Munderoo Campsite when I arrived at 7pm and 15
minutes later I had retrieved my food drum and began
getting organised to camp and reorganise supplies
for the next six days. My feet were very tired
and I felt like I could have crawled straight into
my sleeping bag once the tent was set up, but knew I
hadn't eaten or drunk much during the day and forced
myself to eat a meal and update my diary before
heading for bed about 10:45pm.