Day: 19
Date: Sunday, 05 May 2019
Start: Limestone Creek
Finish: 4km south of Tin Mine Huts
Daily Kilometres: 33.8
Total AAWT Kilometres: 418.4
Weather: Overcast, drizzling and cold in the morning, and mostly cloudy in the afternoon
Accommodation: Tent
Nutrition:
Breakfast: Muesli
Lunch: Trail Mix
Dinner: Rehydrated Meal
Aches: Both very tired
Highlight: Crossing into New South Wales from Victoria by jumping across the mighty Murray River at the remote and atmospheric Cowambat Flat, a vast open meadow in the heart of the mountains. There's even wreckage from an old transport plane that crashed there in 1953.
Lowlight: Getting lost a number of times in cold and wet conditions as we tried to follow the "poorly defined" AAWT up Stony Creek in the early morning drizzle. There were brumby tracks everywhere, which didn't help.
Pictures: Click here
Map and Position: Click here for Google Map
Journal:
We woke to cold wet conditions again, with a saturated tent fly, as usual, and were packed and on the trail by 6:40am. We first had to cross Stony Creek where I managed to put my foot in a hole and get a wet foot to start the day. After crossing the creek, the AAWT followed it upstream on faint trail which we repeatedly and frustratingly lost amongst the myriad brumby tracks. Even when we were on the trail, it was often just a muddy scrape along a hillside and slippery. After an hour or so of this, the AAWT climbed steeply up a spur and eventually reached Cowombat Flat track, a very muddy 4WD track that took us northwards in the drizzle.
After a while we heard the sound of engines and were soon passed by about 20 trailbike riders who were, illegally, riding the same trail northwards into the declared wilderness area. They were the first humans we had seen in three days. A little while later, at the gated entry to the wilderness area, we stopped for breakfast in the drizzle, looking very bedraggled and cold when the first of three park ranger vehicles arrived and the very friendly rangers got out for a chat. They even took a picture of us with one of the rangers for their internal newsletter to show that hikers actually used the trails they looked after. They were interested to know about the trail-bikers, but there didn't seem to be much chance of catching them.
By the time we had finished breakfast, we were getting quite cold and put on extra gear for the morning's walk. The trail was muddy, and slippery in parts, but the grades weren't too bad and we made good time as we caught glimpses of the Cobberas mountains to our right. We had decided last night that if we covered plenty of ground today and tomorrow, we could probably reach the ski village of Thredbo, and our next day off the trail, by tomorrow night, a day earlier than scheduled. With that incentive, and the cold conditions, we powered on towards Cowombat Flat and the NSW/Victorian border. Not long before getting there, we met the three rangers on their way back and had another chat (they were impressed with how much ground we had covered).
After savouring the beauty and tranquility of Cowombat Flat (see above), we crossed into NSW and followed an old disused firetrail into the Pilot Wilderness Area. There was a very long and tiring ascent, but at the top we joined the Snowgums Trail for a beautiful evening ridge walk through snowgum country, startling a couple of brumbies along the way. After leaving that trail, we began looking for campsites, but had difficulty finding something and continued walking until well after dark. Around 6pm, we found a barely suitable spot and set up camp. It was cold, and after erecting the tent, we threw everything into it and washed, set up, and ate inside. It was a satisfying day in many respects. We saw more remote, varied and wonderful mountain scenery, while making good progress, distance-wise, evidence that we now have good backpacking fitness.
We're planning an early start tomorrow for the 33km to Thredbo and hope to get there around 4pm.
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