Lately I’ve been becoming more and more concerned about my inability to remember some of my travels, my life experiences, my stories. So I decided to make a more concerted effort to journal them, in an attempt to keep them alive. Even if no one else reads them on this blog, I don’t mind. This is for me. So to that end, here is our Vic Alps Adventure.
Michael had been talking for some time about going down to Vic to climb Feathertop and Bogong, as part of a bigger Victoria walking trip, with Karen and Pete. I think he’s done Feathertop before but I’m not sure about Bogong - and I know Karen hasn’t. Anyway when he first mentioned it I jumped at the chance. The only problem was, as it is with most of Michael’s trips, its during school term time.
So I was a bit naughty. Knowing that the school wouldn’t give me the day off to go bushwalking, I requested a day’s leave without pay. Normally I would have chucked a sickie, but in these covid times, its just as likely damn Annastacia Palaszcuk could shut the borders because someone in Victoria coughed - and then where would I be? Quarantined or self-isolated til a clear covid test. How could I explain that to school? So I did what any normal person would do - I lied and said I had a family wedding to attend, and asked for the day leave without pay. And was granted it.
But then there was a case of covid in Vic, and she did shut the borders, so we weren’t sure we could go. About 10 days before we were due to leave, finally she opened them again, and we rushed to grab flights, accommodation and so on. I remember it because we were in the car with Michael and Karen on the way to climb Mt Joyce when Michael said she’d opened them, and he had to pull over so Russell and I could frantically book everything! Even then, the motel where M&K were staying was now fully booked, so we had to stay at the Casbak Alpine Units instead of the Harrietville Snowline Motel. The plan was we would fly late Thursday night to Melbourne, hire a car, drive 3 1/2 hrs to Harrietville, check in, sleep, then meet Michael and the others at 9am the next day to go climb Feathertop. Busy.
So that’s what we did. Sharon Cottam picked Russell up and then me from school, dropped us to the airport, and then we flew down with Virgin to Melbourne. The Virgin lounge, which Russell is such a fan of, is still not properly open because of covid, so all we could get was a coffee or wine, and some pre-packaged sandwiches. I went and got a seat and Russell the food, but he didn’t see me, so he got his own seat. When he realised I was in another section waiting at a table, he came over, and the cleaner threw out his perfectly good sandwiches whilst clearing his table, so he had to go get new ones.
The flight down was uneventful. Because of covid you must wear masks in the airport and on the plane, except when eating / drinking. But also because of covid they only serve water and a small snack. It was pretty crap.
We arrived in Melbourne and made our way to the Avis desk to get the car. It was a zippy thing. We set off for Harrietville, stopping off at some services on the way for dinner by way of McDonalds. The woman in Maccas was pretty unhappy to be there and not very forth coming in taking our order.
We had told the motel about our late arrival and they had put the key in the door. The unit was quite functional but odd. Small kitchen, with a booth style table. Microwave on top of a bar fridge and no real bench space. Certainly nowhere to store any food. The lounge consisted of a sofa, coffee table and a couple recliners I think. The bathroom was narrow, with a small basin and a 70s style shower. The bedroom was functional but shared a wall with the unit behind - and being only a brick wall, the sound travelled. Which was most unhelpful as the unit behind was occupied by a young family, with crying baby and loudly snoring father. Suffice to say I did not get much sleep.
We awoke at the appointed time and set off in search of breakfast. No small feat in a town where everything practically is shut because of covid. In the end all we could manage was a coffee cart near the park that had pretty ordinary sausage rolls and even more ordinary coffee.
We headed up to the Snowline motel to meet Michael and the others, then drive to the start of the walk near Hotham. Russell drove us as he was going birdwatching. We started at Diamantina Hut. This is a lovely A frame hut meant to be used in emergencies in winter I suppose. It was quite cold as we started the walk, but as things went on obviously, it warmed up. What stunning countryside there is here. The views are simply amazing. Being above the tree line, the countryside is made up of those harsh little scrubs, with views for miles (on a clear day - which this relatively was).
We hiked along the Razorback hiking track until the intersection with Bungalow spur track, where we encountered some 70 or so other hikers. Later on in the weekend we found out about a 3 peak or something challenge and they were all part of that. It was another 1.5km to the top of Feathertop, the last part of which was quite steep, and for the first time in my life I found myself over taking Pete and Karen!! Had a spot of lunch at the summit but I wished I had a mosquito net or something - the insects (were they midges? Not sure) were ferocious! Karen had a net that goes over your hat - I want one of those.
After the summit we headed back down to Harrietville. This was a long descent but again through very pretty countryside - my favourite being the snow gums. So beautiful. The descent seemed to take forever though and we were getting pretty tired - after all we were walking 22kms all up. Michael was particularly suffering so when we had phone reception we called Russell to come meet us, and save us the last km or so.
Arrived back to the motel to freshen up for dinner. Michael had made a booking at the restaurant at their motel. Russell and I walked there from our motel and had a really pleasant chat about the future, enjoying the walk.
It was a lovely meal but afterwards I had a terrible night’s sleep and woke feeling decidedly unwell - the worst I had in a long time! So I was not in a very good state to try and climb Bogong.
We checked out of the motel and met up with the others. Boy I was feeling grim. Russell drove the hire car and Michael had his car and we headed off for the start of the Bogong track.
Not going to lie, it was slow going. Me because of the night before. Michael and Pete because of their heavy thru packs. Russell and Karen though were in fine form. The climb basically is straight up. The first part is pretty flat, as we crossed a couple creeks - for the most part we found the bridge to cross. But once we got to the staircase trailhead, it was all uphill from there!
Michael had said that if we were to have any chance of getting out before nightfall we would need to be heading back down from the summit around 1.30-2.00pm. That wasn’t looking likely! It was so tough. I have never struggled so much in my life and I was kicking myself for it. Karen, Russell and I kept a slow pace but we soon lost sight of Michael and Pete, who were seriously struggling. When we made it to Bivouac Hut, Karen said we should go on - and it turned out just as well we did, because Michael and Pete were (even at that stage) an hour behind us. In fact, Karen later said she regretted not coming with us because when Michael and Pete eventually turned up, Michael decided he wasn’t going any further and just set up camp. They’ve already climbed Bogong before so it doesn’t matter to them, but Karen hasn’t, and now she might have missed her chance.
Russell and I set off for the summit and the weather was starting to come in - quite cold and definitely very foggy. It was hard to see very far in front. But we kept going. We met about 80 hikers on their way back down - some 3 peak challenge or something - but they encouraged us to keep going. Eventually, about 2pm, we made it to the summit. It was freezing and so windy - and all covered in fog - so no view. But I was glad we had done it.
We set off back down and caught up with the others at Bivouac hut. I have never seen Michael look so knackered. I felt for Karen but she had chosen to wait. We said goodbye and headed off back to the car. On the way we met a bloke from the 80 hikers who was hauling ass back up to Bivouac - seemed one of the clients thought they left their phone there. We later found out the idiot eventually rang his number and found it in his backpack - but didn’t bother to radio the poor mug who was going off to look for it - so he was not impressed.
It was getting dark by the time we got back to the car and it just started to rain as we got there. I was shattered.
We headed off to Bright where we had booked our accommodation for the night at the Alpine Motel. This turned out to be a nice room - but it was part of the pub, and being a Saturday night - very noisy! We thought we were in luck when it started raining, as then they might shut the doors to the outdoor area - but no. And it was noisy. We had dinner in one of the other pubs and the food was ok, but it was very noisy there too. I was so glad when I finally got to sleep!
On Sunday we had a leisurely breakfast at the cafe across the road. I was stunned that they didn’t have anyone checking we’d signed in for covid. In fact I couldn’t even find the book. When I did, I couldn’t believe that in a cafe so packed, only about 4 people had signed in. No wonder Victoria had all that covid outbreak it had last year - the second wave - they aren’t taking it seriously.
On our way back to the airport we did a wine tasting at Brown brothers, which was really good.
The flight back was pretty uneventful - this time on Qantas so the food was a little bit better. It had been a lovely weekend...
