Journal:
It was very
cold in my cabin during the night and I woke a few
times wishing I was tucked up in my tent in my
sleeping bag. Determined to try and reach the
trail finish at the Hovell Tree, 49km away in
Albury, in daylight, I left the cabin in the
pre-dawn at 6:30am and set out at a good pace with
light provided by a fabulous moonset across Lake
Hume.
The early trail passed through
the Ten Chain
Stock Reserve, presumably part of the national
system of stock routes in rural Australia. As
usual, the early walking hours seemed the best.
There was fog drifting in some of the nearby valleys
and frost in some of the pastures, as the sun rose
in clear skies and cold temperatures. On the
radio, they said the temperature in Albury was 0°C
and it felt like it. But as the morning wore
on it became warmer and I gradually removed layers
to end up in the usual shorts and T-shirt.
After the Stock Route, the balance of the morning
was
spent
roadwalking, some of it in thick fog, through the
rural outskirts of Albury. It was easy to make
good time on the roads and I passed lots of
interesting farmlets and some nice views, but it is
hard on the feet. By the time I reached the
suburb of Thurgoona in early afternoon, where the
trail began following footpaths and bike trails, I
was just plodding along, hanging out for the next
break. The trail-marking was hard to follow in
places, and I began to rely on the maps and GPS to
confirm I was going the right way. Suburban
walking doesn't have a lot to recommend it, and I
was looking forward to the climb of East Hill in
Albury for a change of terrain and pace. All
day, I had tried to cover at least 10km between
breaks and to keep the breaks short and was happy to
see I was on schedule as I approached East Hill and
the final 10km.
The climb up the Hill on the foot trail was very
welcome to my road-pummelled feet,
and at the top I was rewarded by some excellent
views into Victoria, along the Murray River, and way
back from where I had hiked. After a walk
along the ridge of East Hill I made a painful
descent into central Albury and the final
sole-destroying and soul-destroying couple of
kilometres across the town. The sun was
setting and it was a race to get to the Hovell Tree
in daylight. I made it at 5:25pm in just
enough light to take a few photographs, and then sat
on a park bench for 15 minutes or so to recover and
ponder on my journey, as night fell and the air
cooled.
The trail had matched my expectations with its great
mix of rural and mountain
Australian
scenery, but I was surprised not to have met a
single hiker the whole way, travelling in either
direction. Maybe it's the distance from the
Australian population centres, but perhaps it just
isn't well enough known. It's a pity, because
it's a great slice of Australia. The camping
facilities and guidebooks were excellent and I look
forward to running some of the trail in the Hume &
Hovell 100km in October. I will be back.
I finally roused myself from the park bench and
hobbled the half kilometre to my motel. After
a shower, I wandered
downtown and bought some dinner to bring back to the
motel, and am looking forward to stretching out in
my window seat on the train tomorrow and looking at
the mountains I have just traversed in the distance
to the east.