Both my experience and my memory of this section were in parts very different from last time. Last time, the track was very overgrown, and I lost it near the start of the descent to Black River. I bush bashed for hours down the steep hill, trying to find the track to get to the river. It was not fun. This time couldn’t have been more different. The track has been cleared, and it was so easy to follow and keep. For the most part, it was a really lovely early morning bush walk downhil listening to the birds and insects. I didn’t love the surprise steep uphill in the middle of the downhill – that’s the hottest I have felt so far this hike – but this too shall pass. It only took a couple of hours to get down to the river (not the 5 or 6 hours like last time), and I crossed over the huge fallen log. Black River here is quite wide and very shallow and would be a not bad place to cross if you had to get your feet wet.
After the down comes the up, and this one was a slog up Champion Spur Track. I think it’s called that because you are a champion if you walk up it! It was about 2.5km of very steep 4WD track and not enjoyable under the sun. My memory from last time was that at the top of the steep section of that track was Mt Selma Road. But in fact, Champion Spur Track goes for a lot longer than that, and it kind of did my head in that it was so different from my memory. I also made a new memory by taking a different track (I think it was Stander Creek Track). I had mistakenly mapped that track instead of mapping to stay on Champion Spur Track, and initially, I thought it was pretty nice. It was an overgrown vehicle track cut into the mountain, winding its way around the terrain. So nice, I decided to eat my peanut butter wrap while walking. As soon as I got it out of my backpack, the trail became massively overgrown, and I had to use both hands to push foliage and blackberry out of my way whilst protecting my wrap! I was about a quarter of the way in and realised this wasn’t the official track, but decided to push on anyway rather than going back. I probably would have been better off going back – this track was a bit longer and definitely bush bashier, but it was fine and eventually it joined back up with Champion Spur Track.
The next few hours, I spent dirt road walking. It wasn’t unpleasant and was a pretty easy way of getting through some km. All I could hear were birds, insects, my feet, and my backpack. And all of a sudden, I was at Mt Victor, our meeting point for the day. We camped at a very convenient grassy spot right at Mt Victor. The moon is full, or close to it, meaning we’ve been out her for a month already! Feels like ages ago we saw those two male kangaroos fighting under the full.moon at Magpie Flat Camping ground.
Kerry's Hikes 