After a pretty average night’s sleep, I was away at 6:40 this morning. The night had been pretty cold, I reckon getting down to 0 and the morning was chilly. One of the benefits of camping up there is that there’s virtually no one around until after 9:30 when the first chairlift comes up. It’s beautiful and serene and like you’re the only one in the world. Except the runner who ran past me in shorts and a singlet up to the summit of Mt Kosiuszko and back again, l assume to Charlotte Pass!
There were lots of snow drifts to walk through. Amazing how much snow is still up there right in the middle of summer.
I was surprised how easy it is to walk to the summit of Mt Kosiuszko. Highest mountain in Australia and easiest to summit. Way easier than any of the others I climbed yesterday.
I hadn’t realised I’d be on top of the clouds and that realisation was pretty cool. Looking out to the south all you could see was a think blanket of purply-grey smoke sitting just under the clouds. I’m really wondering how much of my walk in Victoria will be impacted by the fires.
I headed off along the raised metal walkway, south towards Dead Horse Gap. I came across the first AAWT sign I’d seen for a couple of days. At Etheridge Pass I left the walkway and started climbing up to Rams Head Range. Looking back from near the top of the first climb I could see the first walkers heading along the metal walkway from the chairlift. How great to be up and away before anyone arrived!
The off track hiking was fantastic. Up and down across North Rams Head, Rams Head and South Rams Head. I realised at Rams Head that the app I was using had mapped a pretty silly trail through that range when it showed a line heading straight down 400m into a valley and straight back up the other side! I decided to make my own way and took the more sensible path along the ridge line and across the saddles.
My challenge arrived at South Rams Head. My app showed the trail I needed to follow to Dead Horse Gap as being off to the west somewhere (down that valley) and I had no idea where the track actually was. Why l didn’t check my map at that point I have no idea. Had I checked, I would have realised how far SE I needed to go before heading south. The other issue was that there was a lone brumby having lunch right where l needed to pass through. I had Caroline’s warning to be careful of the wild horses ringing in my head. I didn’t know why I needed to be careful because all the brumbies I’d encountered to that point had run in terror from me. But I paid very close attention to this one.
So l started heading south earlier than I should have, giving the brumby a wide berth. The brumby looked up from time to time, clearly having heard but not seen me. Then he saw me. And he was clearly very interested. He put his head down a few times then stood facing me, watching me closely. After standing still for awhile I decided I needed to keep moving, so walked slowly, regularly looking across at my friend. Then all of a sudden he started running down the valley in the same direction I was going. He disappeared behind some rocks then came out the other side, continued running towards me a short way then stopped, looking straight at me again. He took a few steps towards me. I raised my snake/wild dog/river wader/now brumby stick in the air which stopped him thank goodness. He changed direction and disappeared behind the rocks. Again, l made the call to keep walking, this time down towards where he’d disappeared. That sure was a tense short walk! I never saw him again. No idea where he went but I was definitely on high alert from then on.
I then realised I was heading into scrubby bush and had no idea which direction to head for the track. What I can say is that the “path” I followed to get to Dead Horse Gap was definitely not the official one. Or one anyone had followed before, probably not even a brumby. At one point Jubble messaged me to ask if my GPS had stopped working because it hadn’t updated my location for an hour. Nope, definitely still working. Just very slow progress. Two words: bush bashing. It was slow and really, really hard work.
Eventually the scrub thinned out and became more grassy. It was steep, but relatively easy (everything’s relative!) and I started making good progress down to Dead Horse Gap. You can’t believe how happy I was when I saw the road appear through the trees!
And there was the Jubbie-mobile! So happy. From the road I could see the start of the “official” track. Definitely not my track. Jub appeared down the track soon after, having walked up hoping to find me. No way that was going to happen based on my route! That course in off track bush navigation is becoming more and more appealing!
Kerry's Hikes 