AAWT Summation

According to Champman's book the AAWT is 660 km of which we completed the 235 km section from Walhalla Mt. Hotham this year so in 2007 we did 425 km from Tharwa to Mt Hotham. In actual fact we caught a ride for the last 9 km into Mt. Hotham but more than made up for that with side trips for water, etc.

My general impressions:

This is a very tough walk. The south part is quite a bit harder than the north. Those days which had greater than a kilometer of climb and big descents were real killers. The days where we waded through thick scrub were killers. Chapman's web site says that most of the stuff that was thick scrub for us in 2007 on the north part has now been cleared, so that at least will be better for current walkers. Another factor that makes the south part harder is the uncertainty about water. Water was much easier to find in the northern section.

I'm very proud of Lee for finishing this walk in spite of her heal pain and the toughness of the walk. She inspired me to stop bitching and get walking!

My favorite sections of this walk are the Baw Baw mountains, one day either side of Macalister Springs (from Chesters Yard to Camp Creek) and from Cowombat Flats to Tharwa. It is extremely unlikely that I will ever do any but these parts again! These parts however were very enjoyable walks with good water, good camp sites and great scenery.

We met some great people on this walk, Gary and Karren on the north part and Kirsty and the bunch of 40 year olds we met at Macalister Springs. The people at Macalister springs were extremely good to us giving us food and much needed anti-inflammatories. Without these pills we could not have completed the walk. We also met Rob and Khalin at Chester's Yard and again at Macalister Springs, who are doing the complete track this year. The were also good people and we wish them luck on their walk.

Back to Lilydale Dec 7

To get back to Lilydale we caught O'Conners bus from Mt. Hotham to Bright. This cost the princely sum of $3.60 each. From Bright we caught the VLine bus to Seymour then transfered to a train to Melbourne and a local train to Lilydale. This leg cost us $26.90 each! We were so blown away with the expense of all this that we took a cab for the last 4 km to our home for $5 each. What a cheap day of travel!

The trip was uneventful.

Mt. Hotham! Dec 5

Yeeehaaa! We made it, completing the walk we started in December 2007.
227km this leg and something like 440 km in 2007. Both were tough but
the south is much tougher.

We did a lazy 15 km up Twins track, probably 300m climb, 100m descent
and got picked up at the highway by Cameron from East Gippsland Ski
Club Lodge where we are staying tonight and probably tomorrow night
too unless we can find a ride to Bright sooner than Mondays bus.

Check back in a few days for a walk summation.

Murrays Hut site Dec 4

Another beautiful day, sunny, breezy and a high of about 20. It was a
fantastic walk starting with a steep climb up through granite boulders
to Selwyn South the up Mt Selwyn. We finally reached the end of Selwyn
track, sometimes a good vehicle track, sometimes just a foot track. We
came down from Selwyn on a track to join up with Twins track which we
followed for the rest of the day to get to Murrays at about 1:30 PM.
It was another hard and tiring day.

We were worried about the water supply here so I carried an extra 4
litres with me. After a wee rest we headed down a fairly open creek
bed for about 3/4 km (150 m drop) to find good water where Chapman
said there might be water. That was a big relief!

950m climb, 800m descent, 12.8 km today, 216.4 total.

Canyon Road Dec 3

Today was mostly a pleasant walk with some overgrown and dead tree
strewn walking on the closed part of the Selwyn track to contend
with. The forest here is open but we had moderate shade. We left with
2.5 litres of water each because there was a water tank about halfway
along. When we got there the roof collector was blown off but luckily
there was enough water for us to get 3 litres each.
We left at 7AM and arrived at 2PM tired from the climbs and yesterday's tension!
1130m climb, 840m descent, 16 km traveled. About 1 km more with 50 m
down and back to get water

Barry Saddle Dec 2

I missed posting this so I'll wack it in here. It was on my phone but I guess I never emailed it to the blog!
We left camp at 7:30 and began the long steep climb up to the Viking. It was a steep track for the most part but the last 30 m of the climb was very steep up a gully in the cliff and was rock scrambling in part. And that was the easy cheat route! the official route requires climbing up a rock chimney, way beyond our capabilities.

Once up top the views were sensational. The track along the top was better than expected and we only lost it a couple of times. The route down the east side was equally steep and long. We were well out of our comfort zone several times today and were extremely glad to get off the Viking.

The rest of the walk was on reasonably good foot track through the bush. We got to Barry saddle about 2 PM so we did a repair job on Lee's pants (coming down off the Viking was a seat pants skid in part) and the tent.

525 m climb, 725 m descent, 6 km walked. Total to date, 187.6 km from Walhalla.

Viking Saddle Dec 1

Very cold this morning. We got away by 8 and for the most part had a
pleasant walk in part sunny weather.

The walk along the Razor was easy enough except for a couple of places
where we had to sidle across wet sloping sheets of rock.

We were overtaken by about ten boys from the Timbertop school who are
camping here tonight. They went off to climb the Viking, we had a
snooze! We get to climb it tomorrow as it is part of the AAWT.

Camp Creek Nov 30

We should have waited for the weather one more day as we had mist and
showers and wind all day.

It was a spectacular walk that could have been even better if we could
have seen the views. Being so close to Macalister Springs the trail
was easy to follow for the most part, but we had to hunt around some
times due to the weather. There were some tricky bits, cliffs to scale
that the guide book described as 'enlivening' but I describe as
'excrement inducing'. The views from Mt. Speculation were meant to be
good. We saw the inside of a cloud and it was very cold.

This is a part of the AAWT we will do again in fine weather.

8.4 km, 720m climb, 1170m descent.

Sick of waiting Nov 30

Monday morning and we're still at Macalister Springs. The rain and fog
has kept us here, although several school groups have gone through,
but we want the views. Anyway, if it smartens up at all we'll be off
today.

While here we met a lot of people, including a group of 40 year old
guys, Stuart, Pete, Andrew and Richard who were fantastic to us,
shared their wine and beer and chocolate with us, would have cooked a
steak for us and gave us lots of food when they walked out. The food
was great to eak out our dwindling supplies.

6 days to Hotham.

Batteries low and no sun for the Solio charger, so you may not hear
more until Hotham.

Macalister Springs Nov 25

Today's walk was brilliant! We are now in one of Victoria's bush
walking Meccas, so the tracks are well tramped and navigation is easy.
The views from Mt. Magdala and Mt Howitt were spectacular. We got our
usual early start and arrived at Macalister Springs at 2 PM.

Lee took panadine (paracetemal+codine) as well as the
anti-inflammatorys and tied her boot less tightly at the back and she
had a much better day. We are running low on anti-inflammatorys but we
met a journalist on Mt. Howitt who had some out at Mt. Howitt car
park, 4 km from the hut so we got 14 from her, enough to let us finish
the walk.

Vallegjo Gantner hut at Macalister Springs was built in 1971. It was
architect designed and is very flash even though the roof leaks a bit.
It's raining probably until Sunday, so we've claimed a corner of the
loft and we are going to rest Lee's heal and my blisters until the
rain stops. Luckily we've accumulated food and some was given to us so
we can afford to stay. Sadly this will cause all of our books to be
empty, but w won't have to carry them to Mt. Hotham.

12.4 km total, 985m climb, 785m descent

Chester's Yard Nov 24

Today was a hard one. We had 2 km of 4 wheel drive track, 10 km of
walking track then 3 km of 4 wheel drive track. Some of the walking
track was good, some was very bad with a steep side slop and lots of
fallen trees. This walk is even tougher than I expected and I knew it
would be tough. At one stage I spit the dummy and yelled at Lee that
it was beyond our capabilities and too tough and that we should pull
out at Macalister Springs.

The forest is more open here, and the views from Mt. Clear were fantastic.

Chester's Yard is a small clearing with a nice stream running through
it so no walk to get water.

Lee's heal pain seems even worse today, so we will limp into
Macalister springs and if it doesn't improve with a days rest we will
try to bum a ride out. When we did the food drop there, lots of people
were around. It's 4-5 km from a reasonable road.

15.1 km walked, 855m climb, 645m descent.