Back home

I also forgot to say I broke my trekking pole - part of it’s still somewhere on the South Viking spur!

I had an enjoyable time on the river and ended the day with dinner, custard and a cup of tea. I drank so many cups of river water - couldn’t get enough of it. I headed off to bed and read my ebook for a bit. Then it started to rain! Had set up tent a bit loosely so it didn’t stretch in the sunshine, which meant a bit of rain got in, but nothing serious. It was still raining when I decided to get up around five this morning. In the lulls between heavier falls, I managed to get everything packed up and crossed the river wearing my flip-flops. The river level was only marginally higher than yesterday. I applied a new blister plaster, put my boots on and set off a bit after 6:30am. I had one or two issues finding the trail but then it was fine, up to the Zeka track.

Zeka 4WD track

More wildflowers along the way

So, finding the Zeka track was easy enough, as was walking along it for around 5 km. A slog at times but a welcome relief after all the navigational challenges of the day before. But I wasn’t able to find the “closed road” going west up the Wonnangatta spur - I went at least 400 metres past the turnoff on the map but found nothing. So, I took a west-northwest bearing and bashed off up the hill. I think this was the first time (of many) I said out loud “oh for f**k’s sake, I just want to get home!”. The spur was an obstacle course slog through fallen trees and scratching regrowth. What a drag! I eventually found the remains of an old vehicle track by heading for the ridgetop and criss-crossing it a few times. By “remains” I mean a vaguely flatter area about the width of a car but totally overgrown, blocked every few metres by fallen trees and disappearing altogether every 20 metres or so. Felt like a forensic scientist trying to work out a crime scene every few metres. Or, like being in a rocky relationship where you could be dumped at any minute without warning. The track dumped me frequently but I somehow always managed to find my way back onto it. This continued for hours, with occasional points where I lost the track and spent some time just sticking to due west.

View from Wonnangatta spur

On the right track!

Finally, the blessed, most loved Macallister Springs track hove into view, complete with sign, which I promptly took a photo of.

The last trick was minutes from the car park - a fork in the track. I stayed on the larger trail but it was soon blocked by a fallen tree with no obvious foot pads around it, so I backtracked, took the other trail and arrived at my car a few minutes later - hooray!

View on the drive back to Licola

I drove back to Licola, listening first to the cricket then to some of my music. Neil Young’s “Heart of Gold” triggered a flood a feelings - relief, exhilaration and something a bit deeper - a reconnection at some level, perhaps with my manhood or my soul or the Universal Soul, or all of these things. For a few blessed minutes I felt as light as a bird on the wing.

Thinking about it now, I can’t really tap into the feeling and it’s probably unrealistic to try to. I’ve noticed that telling Nadia about my experiences of the last few days doesn’t greatly resemble how it really was and how it really felt. Just like writing these words doesn’t really capture how it was and how it felt. Nadia understands that.

Experiencing nature in this way is very different from, e.g. Wilsons Prom a couple of weeks ago. I remember feeling, on the drive up and the first days of the walk, a real fear of the sheer scale of the landscape. I wouldn’t say there’s exactly a presence of malevolence but it’s certainly a stern, unforgiving face that I’ve gazed upon.

Wonnangatta River

An even tougher day than yesterday or the day before - am relieved to have made it to Wonnangatta River and have already drunk a few litres of its untreated perfection!

Hole in the rocks - looking up

Hole in the rocks - looking down

The sun was behind the peak of the Viking this morning until I made it to the summit later on, so there was no spectacular dawn to watch. I packed up, had breakfast, got ready and left the camp site at 7:05am. The walk up to the walls of the Viking was steep at times but otherwise uneventful. I found the ascent gully easily enough and then was confronted by the vertical hole in the rock mentioned in Chapman’s notes, but without any sign of the fixed rope. So, I attached my trekking pole to my pack, took a photo of what I was about to attempt, took another good look at the ascent, took a deep breath … and launched myself. A rather wobbly upright log was the only thing that enabled me to reach up far enough to get a very precarious hand hold. Just writing this makes me feel a bit ill. If I’d fallen, I’m not sure I would’ve stopped where the log was - the slope down from there was very steep and right beneath that point there was another hole between the rocks and beyond that - thin mountain air. I had to wedge one foot between the rocks and launch myself again. I then realised that I couldn’t go any further directly up - I managed instead to lunge over to a rounded rock to my left and my (and my pack’s) momentum was enough that my centre of gravity was far enough onto the rock for me to stay there. I scrambled up, crawled a few minutes then thankfully dropped onto the ground beyond the rocks. Shaking, heart pounding, hand bleeding.

From there, it was a steep but mangable ascent to the top of the Viking for incredible views. To my surprise, a small green tent was pitched just below the summit - probably the bushy from yesterday, although the shadow inside the tent didn’t come out, so I couldn’t be sure.

Viking views

Viking views

Viking views

Traversing to South Viking

Summit of South Viking

From there, it was a largely pathless traverse over to the South Viking - had to descend to the top of the ascent gully, where there were signs of previous campers, i.e. rubbish everywhere. Not impressed. The supposed cairned route was hard to find but it didn’t matter - I made the summit of South Viking after crossing three or so jagged mini-escarpments. Once again had mobile coverage, so I sent Nadia a photo and started on the long descent. I guess I was on a path with an occasional cairn about a third of the time. This wasn’t any fun at all and I hope I don’t have to do this again any time soon. At times, the brush growth was around three metres high and very difficult to push through - no visibility and the new branches were like strong electrical cables trying to trip me up or just slow me down. My legs got scratched to bits in no time so I belatedly zipped the trouser extensions onto my shorts. I made it through with a combination of dead reckoning (take southeast bearing, push through 10 metres, take bearing again), near navigation (pick tree on southeast bearing 10-20 metres distant, walk to it, pick next tree on southeast bearing) and using the GPS and digital maps to try to pick the least steep descent (to avoid arriving at cliffs). I ended up going a bit too far south-southeast and finally glimpsed the river through the trees from a fair height. What a great feeling! It meant the last 30-40 metres were down a near-vertical slope, thankfully heavily vegetated, so I was able to use that to slow me down. I had to walk quite a way along the river - no path so I did some wading - so nice on the feet! First thing I did, though, was have a long drink and dunk my hat in the cool water. It was quite difficult to find the camp site and when I eventually did, I couldn’t believe it. A tent-sized clearing, with stones around a small fireplace, amongst the ferocious blackberry bushes. As if the native cable-bushes weren’t enough, I had to contend with this introduced pest as well. No berries either.

Wonnangatta River camp site

The river is a beautiful, rocky watercourse - such an incredible thing after the pitiful resources last night. After dumping my pack and emptying my pockets, taking my boots off and putting my flip-flops on, I waded in and baptised myself in the cool, clear waters. Heaven on earth! 

Along the river

I haven’t been able to find any disused vehicle track on the other side of the river, so I’ll just take the foot track opposite my camp site and bush-bash again southeast if necessary to reach the Zeka Spur 4WD track tomorrow.

There are little fairy wrens around here, flitting from rock to rock - lovely. It’s a lot warmer down in the valley too, although sitting right next to the water is cooler. There’s not much shade.

Along the river

I can say with some certainty that I’m not keen to do a walk this hard again. It’s been a Bear Grylls-level challenge - today especially has felt like one of his episodes. No camera crew though!

I forgot to say: I found a leech sucking on my lower shin after walking along the river to get here. Took some persuasion to get it off!

Viking Saddle

Sunrise from Mount Speculation

Another epic day of hiking has brought me to the Viking Saddle. The camp site clearing is in danger of being reclaimed by the prolific and very vigorous new growth everywhere. That new growth made today tough.

Sunrise from Mount Speculation

I got up a bit before dawn and watched the sun come up over the Terrible Hollow. Just magnificent - photos can’t do it justice but I took a few all the same. The camp site at Mount Speculation was great - it may end up being my favourite memory from this walk.

Setting off

Former road - nice, easy path

I had a leisurely start as usual and finally hit the trail at 7:30am. I took the clearer route via the overgrown Speculation Road, which has been closed since I don’t know when. Eventually left the road and got back onto the Australian Alpine Walking Track (AAWT) to the top of Mount Despair, via a lovely camp site at Catherine Saddle. It was a slog to the top but not too steep, so easier than many parts of yesterday. I then continued on, eventually descending fairly steeply and arriving at the rocky ridge mentioned by Chapman, which I continued along to the camp site on the Razor Saddle. At this point, the app I use to record my trail completely locked up my phone and I had to restart it - losing my record to that point - grrr!

Atop Mount Despair

Razor and Viking ahead

After that it got interesting. I had to climb over an outcrop to the east of the saddle, including a hairy bit traversing a rather sheer rock face - I didn’t look down. Not sure if that was the “right” way to go - the track at this point became undetectable. The notes said to continue along the ridgetop, which I attempted but gave up fairly quickly as something between a bad joke and a death wish - it seemed like sheer lunacy. Once again, not sure if I was in the right place. I ended up dropping down the southern side of the ridge a bit and after some time found a track again, which turned out to be the AAWT. From here it was really tough - I lost the trail a number of times and on a couple of occasions noted that the track diverged significantly from what was on my map - paper and digital. I bush-bashed for a while at one stage but wisely gave up and turned back, only to stumble on the track again.

Eventually I reached the red composite stone ridge mentioned in the notes, which is aligned north-south, as opposed to the previous east-west ridge. I managed to follow the AAWT to the bottom of it, thanks to an occasional cairn. From there, the track passed through very thick new growth, over two large knolls and down here to the saddle camp site.

A very rare trail marker

More flowers along the way

To my surprise, there was a full pack lying on the ground in the clearing - I guessed rightly that the owner had gone for water. He turned up a bit later - the archetypal bushy with white beard and broad-rimmed hat. Doing a similar walk to me by the sounds of it, but taking it slowly to take photos for his club (not sure if photographic or bush-walking). He said it took him an hour to get water and that it wasn’t easy, so I had lunch and then set off down the path he pointed out which was meant to lead to a creek.

Walls of the Viking from the saddle

That was reached easily enough but was bone dry, so I bush-bashed down the dry creek bed as my fellow walker had suggested. I came to a dry waterfall and had to clamber down a near-vertical slope to get to the bottom. There was only still water there, so I pushed on and found a trickle flowing down the face of a mossy rock a couple of minutes further down. I dug out a pool at the bottom of the rock, waited for it to clear then managed, bit by bit, to get four litres from it. I threw out any cups of water with obvious wrigglies in them, and dropped four purification tablets straight into my water sack. And decided to boil any of the water as well before drinking it.

A lot of today has been forest walking - a nice change from the exposed ridges yesterday.

End of another long day

Viking Saddle camp site

My favourite blister is back with a vengeance - left side of my right big toe. Hopefully the blister plaster will keep it under control until I make it back to the car.

I was able to text Nadia from here earlier - amazed that there’s been occasional coverage. I even managed to log on to my local library and download an ebook … ridiculous!

At today’s lower altitudes I’ve often heard kookaburras and haven’t seen any crows.

I think I can say this has been the toughest day of hiking I’ve ever done. Not due to the distance or even the terrain, but navigationally and water-source-wise. Certainly lends the whole exercise a feeling of absolute authenticity.

I just heard a tree fall in the forest - didn’t see it, though!

Whilst walking on the closed road this morning, I heard a chainsaw from across the valley - must’ve been Parks Victoria workers clearing a trail - I noticed a few chainsawed logs along the final stretch today from the bottom of the red ridge: this section was massively overgrown.

I also forgot to say: my bushy fellow walker had gone by the time I got back from fetching water, so I’ve got the place to myself again.

Once again, my sports tracker app barfed just a few minutes short of arriving here, so I’ve lost the record of the whole day except for the last 300 metres!

Feeling really knackered - will sleep well tonight.

Across the Crosscut Saw

View to the Viking

Dinner on the way! It’s been an epic day’s walking - not many kilometres but a good six hour slog, plus a bit extra to fetch water at the end. I set off at 8:35am with around three litres of water - ended up being more than enough with careful rationing. Things were easy enough through to the Mount Howitt turn-off - I came across the New Zealand couple on the way down from the summit as I was heading up. Nice views from the top, plus mobile phone reception (probably due to a tower on Mount Buller to the west), so I sent Nadia a couple of texts. I’m already looking forward to getting home to her and our lovely life together.

Crosscut Saw from Mount Howitt

The sun has just dipped below the summit of Mount Speculation behind me - I’ll be in the shadows until dawn.

After Howitt, it was the Crosscut Saw - what a slog. The trickiest bits were the steep descents - it was a stroke of genius bringing a trekking pole, made quite a difference. Spectacular views the whole way of course. My anxiety from this morning has pretty well dissipated - I’m still out of my usual comfort zone but I’m feeling mostly good about it.

Alpine daisies, Mount Howitt

The next two days sound quite challenging and at some point, it’ll be quicker continuing than admitting defeat and turning around. A couple of points in the walk notes sound a tad intimidating but if that comes up tomorrow and I don’t feel safe continuing, I can always come back here.

The Razor from the Crosscut Saw

Summit of Mount Buggery

So, the Saw led to Mount Buggery, at the top of which I met the New Zealand couple again - they had wisely decided not to go on to Mount Speculation and were just leaving to head back to Macallister Springs. I had lunch and continued via the Horrible Gap to Mount Speculation - a couple of slightly scary rock faces to scale but nothing more of note. The camp site here is northeast of the summit and is just brilliant - except that it took about an hour’s roundtrip to find and fetch water from Camp Creek. On the way there, I encountered a nice little juvenile tiger snake basking in the sunshine on the path - gave it a wide berth as it didn't appear to have any inclination to move away. Thankfully only the sixth-most venemous snake in the world!

There is no longer 4WD access to the summit of Mount Speculation, unlike last time I was here in the 90s - a massive improvement!

Friendly tiger snake

This way please!

More alpine flowers

Taking it easy!

I forgot to mention that that crow hanging around my camp site at Macallister Springs nicked an unopened packet of two-minute noodles from my food bag this morning and managed, with some difficulty, to airlift it off the knoll I was camped on, never to be seen again!

I’m completely alone up here and feel just great about it. My back is sore, as it was at Wilsons Prom, but I think I’ll sleep OK, especially with my new pillow system (pack underneath to raise it)!

Mount Speculation camp site

Macallister Springs

At Macallister Springs

An absolutely perfect morning at Macallister Springs campsite. Pit toilet here an unexpected luxury - with view! I slept reasonably well but was a little cold - I’ll have to organise my sleeping bag a little better tonight. The walk in yesterday was through snowgum forest.

I have to be honest - I’ve been feeling a bit anxious about this walk - no specific reason, just a general feeling. In hindsight, this is a big jump up from zero wilderness over the past few years, with only a couple of nights at the very tame Prom a couple of weeks ago as warm-up. I’m just going to take it very slowly and carefully. I do want to “connect” to my surroundings whilst here, though - I hope I can, in spite of feeling a bit on edge.

I had a lovely half hour or so sitting with Nadia in the sunshine in our backyard before I left - I miss her now , and our lovely warm home full of togetherness.

A young New Zealand couple, living in Melbourne, are here too and are planning the Crosscut Saw return walk today - as I did all those years ago! It’s actually been nice to have some company, especially such nice people.

My body and mind are on high alert for the days ahead, even though they don’t need to be!

It’s so quiet here! Just a few buzzing flies, a cicada, an occasional bird call. No wind at the moment.

I tried to leave my details at Heyfield Police Station on the way here but there was no one there and their call button didn’t work! And my car navigation tried to send me on dirt road before I even got to Heyfield or Licola so I ended up ignoring it. The drive from Licola to Howitt Plains was no problem - a few nasty potholes but nothing more. The drop-offs on the side of the road were unnerving at times - I solved it by hugging the hillside on the other side of the road.

The sunshine this morning is lovely and warming. There’s a large crow plodding around my campsite, keeping me company.

The Crosscut Saw - where I'm heading!

OK, time to get things going!

Return to Wonnangatta-Moroka

Wonnangatta area, 1992

Around 20 years ago, in the early 90s, I did a walk with some friends across the Crosscut Saw to Mount Speculation and back again. One of the strongest memories I have from that time is the view across the Terrible Hollow to the Razor and the Viking - such striking peaks in an area of true wilderness. I remember thinking at the time how I’d like to return to the Wonnangatta area and do another walk that would take me to those peaks.

Well, life intervened. I moved to Europe about a year after that wonderful walk and stayed there for most of the following 11 years, finally returning to Victoria in 2005. By this time, the memories of the Wonnangatta area had taken on an almost mystical aura - one of a handful of times I’d really felt completely removed from the traces of humankind’s impact on the landscape. I hadn’t given up on the idea of walking in that area again, but also hadn’t investigated it any further.

Towards the end of 2012, I was able to organise some extended time off and had decided that I really wanted to get back into doing some overnight walks again - the previous one I’d done had been a brief foray into the mountains of Snowdonia in Wales in 2007. I decided I should return to my beloved Wilsons Promontory, tackle the Great Ocean Walk and parts of the Great South West Walk … and do a walk somewhere in the Victorian high country. It was then I remembered the Crosscut Saw and eagerly began looking into walks in that area. I stumbled on a couple of web pages that described the “Viking Circuit” and was reminded of that imposing peak. Eventually, I found John Chapman’s book “Bushwalking in Australia” and discovered that a similar walk was described therein. Excitedly, I began my preparation.

The walk I planned to do followed the same route I’d walked all those years ago, starting at the Howitt Plains car park after a lengthy drive on rather rough roads and walking in to the pleasant camping area of Macallister Springs. From there, the trail is followed towards the Crosscut Saw, firstly branching off to scale the summit of Mount Howitt. Then across the Crosscut Saw and Mount Buggery to Mount Speculation. That was as far as I’d been before, but this time I planned to continue eastward to the top of Mount Despair, then traverse across behind the Razor, ascend the Viking, then continue down its southeastern spur to the Wonnangatta River, before climbing back up to Howitt Plains to finish after four days.

Chapman rates the walk as “hard”, for good reason. Getting to Mount Speculation is a physically challenging task but the track is clear and there is a good water source at Macallister Springs. Beyond Mount Speculation, things change. The track becomes much harder to follow, water sources are no longer so reliable, and significant parts of the walk have been affected by very vigorous regrowth following bushfires over the past few years - making progress and navigation much more difficult. For good measure, I was planning to do the walk solo, which tends to magnify any of the difficulties mentioned.

So, it was with a certain amount of trepidation that I set out in mid-December to take on the might of the Wonnangatta-Moroka wilderness area by myself. I didn’t wish to leave anything to chance so was well equipped, including having invested in a PLB (Personal Locator Beacon) in case of emergency. I had 1:30000 topographic maps of the area and, of course, a compass. But I also had digital maps and a GPS on my smartphone, along with some spare batteries so that I could always work out exactly where I was, even if visibility was greatly reduced. I invested in an ultralight tent, a new 45 litre pack and some thermals for the (potentially) cold nights. And so I set off from my home in southeast Melbourne at the start of a lovely, sunny afternoon.

Howitt Plains car park

The drive to Licola was uneventful and was followed by about 90 minutes driving on roads that were passable with a 2WD car, but certainly more suited to a 4WD. Some of the drop-offs along the way were giddyingly high and left a knot in my stomach after many years based on the coast and away from the mountains. I arrived at the car park at Howitt Plains and set off to walk the short distance to Macallister Springs for the first night ......