Australian Alps Walking Track - The Viking to Selwyn Creek Road

Day: 10
Date: Friday, 26 April 2019
Start:  1.0km north of the Viking
Finish:  Selwyn Creek Road Junction
Daily Kilometres:  26.5km AAWT plus 4.0km of detours
Total AAWT Kilometres:  210.2
Weather:  Cold and mostly cloudy with occasional showers.
Accommodation:  Tent
Nutrition:
  Breakfast:  Muesli
  Lunch:  Trail Mix
  Dinner:  Rehydrated Meal
Aches:  Julie's ankle a bit better and Dave has sore heels.  Both very tired again.
Highlight:  Catching up to schedule, which means we have a manageable day tomorrow to reach Mt Hotham and a ski lodge where we are booked in for two nights.  We're ready for showers, laundry, junk food, soft beds and en suites.
Lowlight:  Missing an unmarked and invisible trail junction late morning that left us crashing around in head-high wet bracken in the rain trying to find the trail by GPS.  Julie literally fell 2m down onto the overgrown trail over a small cliff which wasn't visible in the dense undergrowth.  The trail didn't look like it had been used in years, and we emerged sodden wet and with an hour lost.
Pictures: Click here
Map and Position: Click here for Google Map
Journal:

The wind roared all night in the trees high above our sheltered campsite as a cool change moved through.  We were on the trail by 6:40 and after a very steep, long and slippery descent and some nice forest trail, left the Razor-Viking Wilderness Area behind us.  We were now in the Barry Ranges, a relatively low section of the Great Dividing Range, but still with plenty of ups and downs.  They are also known as the Dry Barrys, because of a lack of water sources, but the authorities have installed a few rainwater tanks in remote locations for hikers (thank you!).

We were hoping to make good time and get back on schedule (see above), since much of the day's hiking was on firetrails, but our plans suffered on a stretch of little-used overgrown single-track when we lost the trail (see above) and also on the many climbs, which had demoralisingly frequent false crests.  It was very cold, and while taking a break at the top of South Mt Selwyn (1398m) it began snowing very lightly.

Around mid-afternoon we decided that we would walk until after dark, if necessary, to reach our goal of the Selwyn Creek Road crossing and this is what happened courtesy of a forest road detour that added 3km and 45 minutes to our last leg.  Those 45 minutes were spent walking with headlamps in freezing conditions.  On arrival we quickly set up camp, washed and donned warm clothes.  I managed to knock over the boiling water that would have been a very welcome cup of soup (we are short of gas), but we had already hydrated our meals with hot water, so it wasn't a total disaster.  We'll make another early start tomorrow in what I'm sure will be freezing conditions so that we can get to the Mt Hotham accommodation in good time.