I got up at 7am when it got light and hoped for a better day. The
weather looked OK. The early walking was along an old firetrail made
boggy in places by cows. What are they doing here! I didn't
bother climbing King Billy 1 or 2, given there were other, higher,
mountains coming up shortly. I made good time along the trail
through the visually pleasant alpine forest - gnarly snow
gums, tussocky grass and saplings. After a while I left the
firetrail to head east towards Mt Magdala and was pleased to find
the foot trail was easier to follow than yesterday. It was like a
freeway by comparison, though still quite hard walking.
The views from the grassy top of Mt Magdala (1725m) were
fantastic as promised by the guide book, with mountains rolling off
in all directions. On the way up the next mountain, Big Hill, I met
a guy day-hiking from a nearby hut and we chatted for about 15
minutes. The subject of water came up and I mentioned that I needed
to make Camp Creek tonight or would be a bit short. He immediately
offered to give me the litre he was carrying, but I politely
declined. How nice was that? On top of the grassy Mt Howitt
(1738m) I had lunch enjoying the stupendous views and spread out my
tent and sleeping bag to dry in the sun and wind. After lunch I had
to negotiate the aptly-named Crosscut Saw (up and down, up and down,
you get the picture) where I was often on a very narrow ridge with
very steep drop-offs on both sides.
The constant climbing and descending was slow and tiring but the
views were great. This was the start of a declared Wilderness Area.
Then followed the also aptly-named Mt Buggery (1605m) and the
descent to the also aptly-named Horrible Gap. Hard work! There
followed a very challenging ascent of Mt Speculation (1668m). In
some places it involved virtual rock-climbing with the heavy pack
that had the heart pumping with a combination of work and fear. It
had been raining so the rocks were slick. Then the fog closed in and
I couldn't see anything from the top anyway, though I could smell
wood smoke from somewhere. Half a kilometre later, I came across a
group of about six Outdoor Ed diploma students (including
instructor) on their expedition - only 3 days into their 7-day hike
and they had already had two drop out! I had a brief chat and
continued on another kilometre to Camp Creek where I could get
water, arriving at 6:30pm.
The rain held off until I had almost completed dinner then came
bucketing down for 45 minutes. Everything got a bit damp - it was
very sudden and dark at the time - but nothing too bad. I finished
eating dinner in the tent. Happy with the day, but conscious that I
had been averaging 2kph for much of the day with another hard day
coming up tomorrow. In bed by 9pm.
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