Victorian High Country - Dec 2009

What does a 'young', single man do once he has just had a scrumptious Xmas dinner with his mate Peter V and his family?

Obvious - he goes bush

	Willie Nelson - On The Road Again .mp3
	Found at bee mp3 search engine

My particular bit of bush happened to be the Victorian High Country and in particular this piece of it:

Victorian High Country (thanks to ExplorOz) trek

I left Wagga early in the morning on Boxing day and tool a liesurely drive to Mansfield, about 4 hours drive over the border into Victoria.

Mansfield is always a bustling town as it is the 'doorway' to the VHC from the North. In the summer it is full of 4x4's stocking up with food and essentials (read alcohol) prior to entering the bush and in the winter it is full of 4x4's stocking up with food and essentials (read alcohol) prior to entering the snowfields - I have always liked Mansfield.

Once I had stocked up on 'essentials' I headed the 18 or kms to Merrijig (some of you will recognise the name of Merrijig Holdings and Ski 150 ) and finally into the bush proper.

My 1st night was spent at Upper Jamieson Hut. These huts have been burnt down and rebuilt so often it is not possible to say that they are the 'original' huts - but I guess you can say they are built on the original site?




Very quiet, no other campers only sound was the nearby 'babbling' brook - which served as my swimming hole and later that night rocked me to sleep - ahhhhhhhh - the end of a long day a sip or 2 of 'essential' and a 'babbling brook' - what more can a man ask for ??

Early (7:00ma) I was packed up and on the road heading to my next campsite Wonnangatta Homestead, which turned out to be about 8 hours driving (averaging 8 -10kms per hour) and some of the most spectacular alpine scenery you will see in Australia. The 4x4 tracks were good with some "challenging' sections thrown in just to keep the adrenalin flowing :-).

Checked out Bluff Hut - funny enough when I saw it last, Dec 2008, it was just being re-built after a previous bush fire (they had just put the roof on then) And here it is all completed. These huts are ' working huts' - by this I mean they are kept in good repair, usually have fire wood stacked in them and often have old beds, pots and pans and other 'bits and pieces' - and are used as emergency shelter during the winter snow should people become stranded up here.

Overnighted at Woonnangatta, lots of room here. Big open area with grass (short) a historical cemetery and a alpine hut. Had a yummy dinner of Thai chicken and rice washed down with one or 2 'essential' liquids (purely to prevent dehydration I assure you) and then took a walk around the camp area ( a few kms )

I finished up the night reading almost all of Dan Browns "The Broker' (damn fine reading) on my E-Book reader.

Into the rooftop tent by 10:00pm and a sounder sleep a man has not had I can tell you :-))

Next morning I awoke to a dead quiet (unusual in the bush as the trees have their own language early in the morning as the wind rustles the leaves and the birds start to talk amongst themselves). The reason for this quiet became obvious when I stuck my head out the tent to be met with a scene out of an old English movie - mist!! -and a real 'pea souper' I can tell you by gum lad!!

So after a quick breakfast of "just Right" cereal, fruit and yoghurt - as you can see I dont exactly 'rough it' when I go a way :-))

I had packed up and again was on the road/track by 7:00am and heading towards Dargo, some 6 hours away.

It was this part of the trip that has the most demanding 4x4 sections, some very steep low range 4x4, front lockers in and heart in the mouth stuff - these sections REALLY got the adrenalin going. It is always alittle bit scarier when you do these sections as you are on your own and if something goes wrong it is only you to blame and only you to get you out of the deep, very deep, brown stuff that would result if something did go wrong - and I loved it!! :-))

If you look at this picture you can just see a faint track (squiggle in the very middle of the pic) on the side of the hill in the distance - that is where I went and it was 'almost' vertical.

For the technically minded reader - I was in low range 2nd gear (with Gearmaster "Rockcrawler' transfer case gears) - front lockers on, balls out and heart in my mouth :-)). I must say the Nissan with this gearing did exceptionally well - no sign of a struggle.

I passed a couple of guys in a trayback and a Toyota who were doing it ok but seemed to be bouncing around a lot more than me a sI could basically crawl up at very low speed.

I arrived at the Dargo pub at about 12:30 so I did what any red blooded Kiwi would do - I went in side and ordered a steak sandwich :-). Now if ever you are at the Dargo pub with a group of friends might I suggest you order just 1 steak sanwich because I can tell you now it will feed all of you, they are monstrous and soooo yummy.

From Dargo I started to head home

I had one more nights camp at Tomba Crossing again leaving at 7:00am and arrived home at about 1:30pm on 29th December.

More photos of this trip can be seen here


Ok thats it for this trip report - I hope you all have a happy Xmas 2009 and a prosperous year 2010

Keep the shiny side up - cheers - Terry (a.k.a The KiwiAngler)