Saturday, 11 January 2025
So, ‘How’s the serenity?’ of camping in the Aussie bush?? First it was the distinctive call of a boo book owl which was awesome. But then, it was the spine chillingly mournful sound of howling which seemed alarmingly close even though we knew the sound was probably carrying on the clear night air. John confirmed in the morning that we had been listening to a dingo howling. It took me ages to get up the nerve to crawl out of the swag to venture around the end of the truck to the toilet tent for some bladder relief. So, so thankful that I didn’t have to make the walk over to the long drop toilet near the hut.
We are definitely getting better at setting up and re-packing our gear. We have our self-inflating mattress with us but decided to give it a go last night using the standard foam mattress in the swag on its own. We needed to decide if the hassle of packing up the extra mattress is worth it? It’s easy to set it up at night because it’s self-inflating and then you just screw the bungs in BUT wrestling the air out of it in the morning to pack it up is time consuming. The verdict? We’re not convinced that the extra effort is worth it. Perhaps if we are planning on setting up for a few nights in one place we will go to the trouble? We were also smart enough this trip to pack up all of our cooking gear from dinner last night, last night rather than be packing that up this morning! Trying to work smarter not harder.
With everyone re-packed we continued on Bluff Track stopping to take photos at Picture Point where the track turns eastwards and again at the junction with the Australian Alps Walking Track which strikes out towards Mt Magdala. After swinging south again and driving through beautiful snow gums on a glorious sunny morning we reached the intersection with the eastern end of Brocks Road and King Billy Track turning left onto King Billy Track.
We stopped at the rock scree on King Billy Track which remains a massive scar on the landscape after the slip that tore the side out of the mountain in (I think) the 1990s. Ross and Magda related their memories of riding through the area when the damage was more recent. Although the bush is starting to regrow on the jumble of rocks on the mountainside it will be many decades yet before the devastation is covered. From the rock scree we had clear views of Mt Magdala and the distinctive notch that is named Hells Window.
At the Mount Howitt Carpark (for hikers undertaking the Mount Howitt Walking Track) we turned south onto Howitt Road. As we drove past the turn-off for Zeka SpurTrack and the Howitt Plains, we found ourselves re-tracing tracks that we drove in November. Heading into the Wonnangatta Valley on our last Victorian High Country adventure we were driving north along Howitt Road.
We stopped for lunch at Howitt Hut where we encountered the intrepid horsewomen riding the Bicentennial National Horse Trail on our November trip. Our Rooftop’s map notes that this hut is possibly the third oldest hut in the Victorian High Country on public land (the Alpine National Park). Howitt Hutt is closely related to the Wonnangatta Murders that occurred during the summer of 1917/18, and many believe the hut to be haunted. We didn’t encounter any ghosts but then … it was broad daylight.
We continued south through the Howitt Plains and up and over the Bastards Neck before dipping down onto Bryces Plain and parking in the car park for Guys Hut. Alex Guy acquired Wonnangatta Station and the Snowy Plains freehold in 1934 and built the hut as a cattle mustering shelter in 1940. The car park is about one kilometre from the hut so, with the weather looking threatening, we donned our raincoats and set off.
It had already rained earlier so although we were walking in only a heavy drizzle our legs were getting wet from the saturated bushes along the track. When we arrived at the hut, I took a quick photo and thank goodness I did for after we entered the hut, the heavens opened. The heavy, possibly even torrential rain was accompanied by thunder and lightning, so I guess we found ourselves using the hut for just the purpose for which it was intended – to take shelter from the weather!!
Eventually the thunder and lightning passed – if not the rain! – and it was decided that we would have to walk back to the car park in the wet. With our cameras zipped up inside our raincoats to protect them from the weather no more photos were taken of Guys Hut other than the one I snapped quickly on our arrival. On a nice day we could have completed a circuit walk that would have taken us back to the car park via Pieman Falls. With nice weather AND an hour or so to spare we could have hiked through Bryces Gorge into the Conglomerate Falls. So much to see weather and time permitting!
We continued south along Howitt Road until we reached Kellys Lane/Kellys Hut Track. Hmmn Rooftop’s calls it Kellys Lane but looking at Google Maps as I write this, I see that Google calls it Kellys Hut Track. Same, same, I guess! We turned hard right onto the track which took us down to and across Shaw Creek. We arrived at Kellys Hut mid afternoon and took some photos of yet another picturesque historic mountain hut. John said we could camp here but he wanted to check out McMichaels Hut a bit further along the track in case it was unoccupied because it’s a more picturesque location closer to Shaw Creek.
The earlier rain had all cleared by now and it was turning into a lovely late afternoon/evening, so it was no hardship to drive a bit further even if it meant backtracking to set up on the flat area outside the Kellys Hut precinct perimeter fence. We arrived at McMichals Hut to find that, unfortunately, it was already occupied. It was decided that we would head back to Kellys Hut for the night, but David and Thomas stayed behind to try their luck catching some trout. John had said that although Shaw Creek is small it is reputedly an excellent trout fishing spot.
Back at Kellys Hut we set up camp and Ross busied himself building another impressive bonfire, I mean campfire! As we sat around in the late afternoon sunshine, we noticed a couple of float planes buzzing around. What are they doing around here we wondered? Soon the float planes were joined by a helicopter with a water bucket. Hmmn, have they seen our fire and come to put it out? Or, of more concern, did the storm earlier start a bushfire and … where is it?? The locals, John, Ross and Magda, seemed unconcerned, and we couldn’t see see or smell smoke so we carried on.
We cooked dinner in a cloud of flies – SO – MANY – FLIES! – but managed to get our steak and salad into us with eating any. It was pretty unpleasant though. Another lovely evening sitting around the campfire. At least around the campfire the bug quotient was much lower. Ross broke out his banjo and serenaded us with a couple of bush ballads which added to the atmosphere. Since the sun had gone down the cloud cover had increased again so, no searching the heavens for the Sky Train tonight. Early to bed with plenty more of the high country to explore tomorrow.
