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.
