Day 35: Mt Erica Carpark to Walhalla 22.7kms, 5.5 hours, 463m ascent, 32k steps, 1 snake, 0 hikers

I can’t believe today is the last day!  Jack joined us for a cup of tea, then we walked together to Walhalla. It was such a lovely way to finish the hike, chatting and walking through beautiful and easy terrain.  The mountain ash trees were so tall and stunning.  Most of the walk was a gentle downhill – poor old northbound walkers, this section is the longest continual uphill section for them for the entire trail,  going up all the way to Mt Erica!  At one point, Jack almost stepped on a black snake while turning around to talk to me – lucky no one overreacted, and we were all fine!

The very last section of the walk followed the path of an old tramway next to the Thomson River, which was really lovely both because it was in a very picturesque valley and also because it was flat!  The Poverty Point bridge was closed due to structural issues,  so we walked to the car bridge and crossed there. The downside to that was that we walked downhill to the car bridge and then back uphill to the tramway. As Jack said, of course the AAWT has a challenge all the way to the end!  As we were walking along the final section of tramway above Walhalla, we heard Jubble calling out – he could hear us from the pub down below where he was waiting with food for us!  What an amazing sense of accomplishment finally arriving at Walhalla and how fantastic to be able to finish with Jack, who I’ve been walking with or camping with or leap frogging or messaging all the way since Tin Mine Huts just outside of Thredbo.