Day 16: Buenba Flats to Benambra-Corryong Road 30kms, 10 hours, 43k steps, 1044m ascent, 1 hiker

We woke up to lots of kangaroo friends having breakie on the grass outside our tent.  Instead of driving back to Mt Hope Road and doing the 5km to here,  I decided to start walking straight from here and go back at some stage for that missing 5km.  I didn’t know how overgrown and therefore slow it would be getting to Johnnie’s Top.  I’m glad I did that because in the end I didn’t finish until 6:30pm and it would have been very difficult doing the end of today in the dark.

Jubble walked 5.5km across Buenba Flats with me to Corner Creek and the start of my ascent to Johnnie’s Top.  Our walk was slow going, and we didn’t do a great job of sticking to the creek, which Jubbie learned on his walk back, was by far the easier route.

The climb to Johnnie’s Top took just over three hours, with varying levels of steepness along the way. The group who cleared the track at the start of this year did an amazing job, and there was only one short section where I lost the track and had to improvise. That must have been such hard work,  carting chainsaws around up there, and I’m so grateful.  Early in the climb, I looked down and saw Jubble making his way back through the flats, and we were able to call out messages to each other. How sweet.

At the top, I sat down to have some hydralite and a peanut butter wrap.  I love that my legs haven’t been sore at all after big climbs and that I’m happy to just keep going. Soon after leaving the top, I met a hiker doing Mt Hotham to Canberra, and he was struggling. His day had been predominantly uphill with some of those being very steep (I was about to experience them downhill), and he’d just picked up a food drop so his pack was extra heavy. He wanted to make it down to the flats but thought he’d have to stop at Johnnie’s Top because of the storm. It had been thundering all morning,  but so far, no rain,  and the weather forecast on my Inreach said only 60% chance of small amounts of rain.  I wonder what he ended up doing.

Johnnie’s Track leads down from the top and was very easy walking. Then on to Beroka Ranges Trail and more of the same.  No navigation, easy to stride along, and easy to get lost in your own thoughts. I spent the afternoon thinking about my lovely Miss Kat.

From dirt roads, the trail leads into the bush again, and this foot track was very wet. The ground was wet, and so were all the plants that overhung the path. I was constantly having to push through or pull apart wet overhanging branches. I loved that the path was very easy to follow and no real chance of losing it. On this same section last time i did this walk, I missed the turn-off onto this track and made the (silly) decision to bush bash down to find the path instead of walking back to find the start of it. Looking at how dense this bush is,  I still can not believe how I got through it. I couldn’t even see what I was walking on last time.  There were lots of fallen trees and branches across the path, making for very slow going.

Eventually, the dense bush thinned out, and the track started to descend along a spur.  In some places, it was super steep and rocky, so I was picking my way from rock to rock, trying to land on one that wouldn’t move under foot. I thought about that poor guy with his heavy backpack going up this!  As I came down, the thunder started again, and it looked like rain was coming.   I stayed on course until about 1km from the end when I drifted off and took the way of the creatures.  I knew the general direction I needed to go, and the bush was not dense,  so it was easy to just head in the right direction. I followed several creature tracks, which made the walking even easier. I finally popped out onto the road a few hundred metres away from Jubble and our meeting spot. I’m glad I didn’t know about the large copperhead snake he’d seen close to there while waiting for me. It slid onto the road for a sunbake. He walked towards it, not too close he says, it reared up its head at him like a cobra, then went back into the bushes.  Within five minutes of getting into the car, it started pouring. What amazing timing!

We’ve been so lucky with our timing. We’re staying in Omeo tonight and there is big rain forecast. What great timing for a rest day in a motel with a shower (after four days of no hair wash and lots of sweating, my hait doesn’t even move anymore)!