Day 234 Talbottville to Cynthia Range Track

 Vic Day 10 (234) Friday 14th January, 2022 16.8km

I read the information board at Talbotville and attached was a little card say McAllister or McMillan was responsible for general massacres of the Aboriginal people around the area. The names are celebrated throughout the district and I wonder at the veracity of the information or do we just ignore this older history.

1st Creek Crossing

I'm having trouble with my solar panels. It doesn't seem to be generating

power and with overcast days I'm losing power all the time. I have to turn off the phone more often and photos become less. I have a clear day today so will check it out later. The trail does a 9 kilometre meander and I see the signs for the McMillan track that ends at the Pioneer Racecource but about 7 kilometre shorter with only the one river crossing. I decide to give it a go but it is not a maintained track and a couple of hundred metres short I'm bleeding from the overgrown Berry vines and have to turn back. Then it's a 2 hour walk around the original trail. Oh well. A lot of betadine on the scratches and start again.

Looking down from McMillan walking track

Makes me think though how much affect we've had on this country in the short

time we've been here. I'm wandering on roads and tracks. I don't know what it would be like through Virgin bush but it would have been a lot easier without blackberry vines infesting our waterways. I have to do 3 crossings of Brewery Creek and 1 crossing of Wongangurra River.

Wongungarra River

I meet a convoy of 4wds going to Dargo. The pub was going to reopen on the 14th, I don't know whether it did? I get round to Station Track, then comes the ordeal of climbing one of these ridiculously steep hills. It takes a few goes and the only consolation is it gets cooler by a bit as I go up.

River Crossing Number 3

The other problem was I had a full load of water as I can't work out where

the next puddle will be on top of the Ridge line. I sit down to have a rest and a convoy of 8 comes up the hill going back to their camp at Eaglevale. These 4wds love this country. Horses, mountain bikers and hikers not so much, or not these gravel roads. We have a chat as they pass. If they had come an hour earlier they could have least taken my pack to the top. But that's not the end of this torture. The road roller coasters its way to Mount Cynthia.

Private Property

Hill Climb

Road across the top

Looking back down the valley

I'm looking at some dark clouds rolling towards me and ask Belinda to check

the weather. A severe thunderstorm warning is in place for here. I find a spot on the track and setup the tent. There was a flat spot just off the track but that turned out to be the toilet. None of it buried of course. It's while I'm here looking at the view with the toilet paper and beer cans I dream up Shazza and Dazza.

I can just picture Dazza driving his old modified Nissan Patrol, mainly

because he couldn't afford a decent Toyota. Belching smoke and gravel as he tears the track apart as fast is better. He pulls up top and jumps out with a Carlton Dry (it seems up here) in one hand then his dick in his other as he belches while Shazza squats on the other side of the car. Dazza says, "love this view Shazza". "Yeh", says Shazza."How far to Dargo Dazza?". "About a 6 pack Shazza. How many cartons of beer did we pack for the weekend Shaz". "3 love". "Hope it's enough Shaz. Be a shit weekend if we run out. Ready Shaz?" "Yeh Daz" as she delicately places a rock to hold her toilet paper down.(For the Pixies presumably). The can gets a quick crush and is dropped beside the road as another tin is cracked open and the patrol belches more diesel fumes and tears a bit of gravel up,(maybe not if it's a Nissan) and they disappear. And thus it explains what I see when I get to the top of Mount Cynthia.

The track drops. Never seems to be a gentle slope.

The storm moves overhead and I sit it out in the tent. I'm far enough from

the edge to miss most of the wind. The bonus is I collect rainwater as it runs off the tent. The storm passes before it's dark but I stay where I'm at and spend the night.