Day 211 Mount Clear

Another hill. That's not really a hill

NSW Day 69 (211)

Wednesday 22nd December, 2021 13.3km

4310.9 / 788 km

I'm not feeling well. My first thoughts go to Covid as I have been a few areas in the last couple of days.

It feels like a head cold and my legs are weak. But I've got to keep going and I set off for Mt Clear Camp. It's not far away as I did a lot of the distance yesterday.

Only mates I can talk to.

My thoughts are a short day with a chance to relax and maybe a stopover. But after meeting a ranger, the campground needs to be booked. I decide to walk up to the main road and find a stealth camp not far from a creek.

The trail climbs a hill to the ACT/NSW border. My legs are still weak and I sit down halfway up to rest. Two young people power up the hill and stop and chat. As it turns out he is a member of the National Trail Facebook page and is thinking of riding the trail on a bike one day. That's where my trip started. Thinking about it. About 5 years in planning altogether.

More mates.

I got my act together then kept climbing the hill only to meet them coming back. Oh what I would give for some young legs again. Then once you hit the top you just turn right and go down again. Hasn't anybody heard of contouring. I suppose it's what we get for following fire trails not dedicated walk trails.

My nice hidden spot beside the road 
s.

The border is also the Namadgi National Park boundary. So when I hit the road I look for a camp spot and find one in amongst some trees and a short walk down to Grassy Creek which is flowing nicely. A relaxing afternoon and working out some different scenarios for stopping for Christmas.

Day 210 Back on track - Namadgi

 NSW Day 68 (210)

Naas River

Tuesday 21st December, 2021 34km

4291.7 / 807.2 km

Got up early enough. They leave a toilet open at the Namadgi centre.

So it's quite civilised.

The trail turns off before the visitors centre but that road has been closed due to flooding so I walk down the main road before walking across a new bridge being built on the main road.

Looking into the Namadgi park. I'm going round.

The trail then turns up the Naas River Valley. It's fairly uninspiring and in short time I'm at Caloola Farm. I'm booked yo camp the night but it's only 10am. I wander around but can't find anyone.

Walking the main road.

My book notes tell me to cross the river to the campgrounds so I do.

The river is rushing over the concrete causeway but I balance on the kerbing on the side where the water is shallower and go across. I wander down the road and Belinda has finally got hold of someone from Caloola.

They are not there but send the message that I'm welcome at the bunkhouse and the track in front of green building leads to campground. By this time I'm passed any buildings. I decide to continue walking. Hope they use my money on signage. Would make it a lot easier.

The side road or trail closed due to flooding.

The track follows the river and the notes say it needs to be crossed 8 times. I have a quick look and I need to take my boots off at each crossing but I'm able to walk in my sandals between a few of them. So I get past the eighth crossing and set up camp next to the road. I'm trying to work out what to do for Christmas Day. At my current pace I will be in the middle of nowhere

Typical creek crossings.
All required removal of boots.

Another one

Camped after 8th one. No cars should come.

Days 208 209 Transporting back to the track

Looking up Collins St

19th and 20th December, 2021 

I just needed to pass through the covid infected state of Victoria back through the more infected state of NSW into the territory not so badly affected but getting there.

So I get on a bus in Healesville that heads all the way into Melbourne but halfway my bladder tells me I need a pee desperately and I get off the bus at Ridgelands. After which I catch the train to Southern Cross in Melbourne. Commuter buses that take over an hour to get somewhere needs toilets for us old people.

When I get to Melbourne I find the train to Goulburn is cancelled with a bus replacement to Albury where we then change to the train. Not ideal as I wanted the train so I got an uninterrupted trip. We were able to cancel that and jump on a Greyhound Bus leaving at 10pm and getting me into Canberra by 6am.

Some of the old

I was picked up by a friend of Belindas, brother, after I managed to get a free bus ride to Belconnen. Apparently they don't sell bus tickets for cash in Canberra or Victoria. The bus from Healesville was also free which was a shame when I got off as I then had to purchase a card to get on the train.

I had to wait for the post as my Alpine Walking Trail guide was due to be delivered. When it was I got a lift to Tharwa and ended up camping down by the river near the Namadgi Visitors centre. It was a bit damp but I found a dry spot and had a good afternoon rest ready for a new start.

The river behind Namadgi

Plane will get me there quicker

Days 199 to 207 Car shuffle and food drops

 NSW Days 57 to 65 (100 to 207) Thursday 9th to Saturday 18th December.

Goulburn Train Station

9 days have passed. I've covered some kilometres. I had to go back to Wallerawang to get my car. First a train from Goulburn to Sydney then up to Lithgow where I got the afternoon school bus that dropped me of in Wallerawang.

For those interested the whole trip cost me $46.00. The train from Goulburn to Lithgow was 42 and the bus 4.

Bimbiri Wilderness Area

I had a good yarn with Mal Keeley at the pub. He is the section coordinator for the Wallerawang area and I missed him on the first pass through.

I drove from Wallerawang south intending to take a break. I stopped for two nights and picked up a couple of buckets for the trek south of Canberra but decided to go home.

Mark McGowan had different ideas, so I thought a Christmas in Qld. I had to drop into Jindabyne to get a Covid Test to enter Qld. I was heading north towards Tenterfield and after discussing some of the problems we were having with the borders decided to stop and head south again.

Dartmouth Dam

Dartmouth Dam

Back to the snowies to drop the food buckets. Bucket 1 was at the Providence Portal which is a cabin camp area on Lake Eucumbene. It's about 5 days out of Canberra. I'm going to pick up the Alpine Walking trail just south of here and head across the top of the Snowies to Thredbo.

NSW Vic border

Hopefully a resupply at Thredbo then another 5 day walk to my second bucket drop at Limestone Flat Camp. The drive there is from Jindabyne south following the Snowy River through Suggan Buggan. The first time I saw the Snowy I was a little disappointed. That was about 20 years ago but it is minor flood.

Lake Jindabyne is full. The drive is long and slow. I went from there to Omeo to see what is there. The hardware store has the gas I need. Stopped at the top pub. I did go down to the caravan park to see if I could catch up with a couple riding north on the trail but they were not out of bed when I wanted to go in the morning.

Suggan Buggan school

Lake Jindabyne

If anyone is interested they have a Facebook page Tales of Australia. They have travelled from the South West of WA. The husband rides the wife is the back up with the truck.

In the distance across Omeo. 3rd lump from
left Mt Kosciuszko.

The next bucket is up in the hills near Howitt Hut. 300 kilometres and 6 hours driving to get there. This one has 7 days supply in it. The last bucket is near a place called Knockwood. A popular camping area along a river. Took a while to find a spot that I thought might be safe. It's hard close to camping area and private property as people search for firewood. But each spot is close to a bail out spot. So if the bucket is compromised I don't have too far to go to get help.

From there it's a long drive back out and around to Healesville. Here I will leave the car and take transport back to Canberra.

Bucket 3. Hope no fire.

Some lovely people are letting me leave the car at their property and gave me access to the shed and hot shower. I swept and raked a little as payment. Their family gather here on boxing day for a couple of days. Saved them a little cleaning I hope.

Craig Sharp gave me the idea of making a donut type thing to put on the bruised hip. I'm working on that but the 9 days off so far has seem the lump dissipate and the bruising settle down. The heaviest food will be from Mt Howitt with 7 days supply. All others are at 5 days.

Victorian alps.

Mt Howitt bucket

Dimmick lookout

Another view from up top

Day 198 Goulburn

 NSW Day 56 (198) 21km Wednesday 8th December, 2021

4020.2 - 1078.7km

And just like that it's over?

That's a question not a statement. I've been pondering my hip problem all night and tried to come up with a solution. The one I will try is using my beanie as padding and see if I can walk more than 10 minutes without discomfort. I've managed to aggravate the area enough to form a haematoma and when I now do up the pack the lump aches.

I set off ok with the beanie and I thought it would work but within a half hour I was in pain. I tried some other things but I'm down to about 5 minutes before I adjust.

I have 1 more night provided I do about 28 kilometres today then I will be in Taralga and I can then work out what I'm going to do.

However the days notes say I should turn off the road down a fire trail 1.2 kilometres from the hut and with all the farting about with the waist belt I miss it. At about the 2.5 hour mark I get the shits and throw the pack on the ground. Never a good sign as breaking the pack won't help.

The road I shouldn't have seen

It's while I'm sitting there trying to come up with a solution I work out I've spent 2 hours walking the wrong way. The fuckity fuck fucks could be heard in Sydney. On an already long day I've added over 12 kilometres if I walk back to the turn off I should have taken. I can keep walking down the road and take another fire trail which will still add the 12 extra kilometres. More swearing ensues. I could add an extra night but I've only got one and a bit nights food left.

So one extra day will mean I will be a little hungry.

I decide to walk down the road. More swearing. About 600 metres before the fire trail I'm going to take the pain in the hip gives me the poops and the pack gets another kicking.

I sit on the side of the road and am feeling very sorry for myself. So at 10.33 am I decide I've had enough and I'm going home. I send Belinda a message but note that I haven't seen a car for 3 days so waiting for one to magically appear is a bit of a stretch.

I've got about 5.5 kilometres to go to Limeburner's camp site. I decided I need to get there hopefully around lunch and relax for the rest of the day ................. then magically a car appears.

Now to put this magic thing into perspective. If I had gone down the correct trail I would have passed a vehicle barrier and no cars would pass. I'm pretty sure my hip would have played up just as much on the correct path. Also when I decided to chuck the pack off and have a tanty I was 600 metres from turning off down another fire trail that also had a vehicle barrier.

Darryl and Val who did stop had a Ute but a king cab Ute that meant I could fit in. Plus they stopped and also offered me a lift. Trail magic at its finest. Thanks to their generosity I was thrown a lifeline.

I decided initially to get a lift to Taralga. But the hip isn't going to get better overnight so when Darryl and Val offered a lift all the way to Goulburn - I took it. Val was comfortable enough with this smelly bum squashed in the seat behind her to sleep most of the way. I suppose I should be grateful it wasn't Darryl. They have a Hema GPS HN7 who they call Ken. So it seems all roads lead to me.

So the plan now is to get to Goulburn take the train to Wallerawang. Get my car. Take a few days off. Hopefully preparing the Canberra to Healesville section. Taking a week or so to do all that and hopefully letting the hip recover. I need to massage the lump to get it to dissipate and hopefully let the aggravation settle.

At this stage I'm not in the mood to continue. If I could drive home I probably would. Bloody McGowan still has the borders locked tight. To drive home, I have to spend 14 days in the NT, QLD or SA before I even apply for a G2G pass into WA. Then I have to quarantine for 14 days in either Ceduna or Kununurra before they let me drive home. To get to South Australia I have to roll up with a negative covid test only 72 hours old, get tested again on entering and get tested again 6 days after entering. When filling out the forms they all ask the address you've spent the most time at within the last 14 days. In most cases the longest I spend is 2 nights in a town the other 12 in the bush. But that's meaningless to the bureaucrats as all they look at is the State. So apparently Covid exists everywhere.

Enough ranting. Gets me nowhere. This could be my last day walking. The next couple of days will tell.

Taralga

Taralga

The hip. The dark brown bit above the waist
band is scarring from constant rubbing. Over the
years it fades a bit till my next walk. The bruising is above that.

Day 197 Mt Werong camp

Onto Book 10

 NSW Day 55 (197) Tuesday 7th December, 2021 19.4km

3969 / 1102.2 km

I got up early as I had long road walk today. Most of this to Canberra is much the same by the look of it.

The pack hurts on my hips. I'm trying different things but I seem to be making it worse. I do get it in a comfortable position but that only lasts about 30 minutes. Slows the day down a lot as I can't just quickly adjust but have to undo it and then readjust.

I was following the road and decided to drop down a fire trail to a creek. A bit of a climb out but it was a welcome change from the road.

As thunder was rolling across I got to the camp area.

Up the road

Along the road

Down the road

Over the road

There were only light showers up till then. I was able to get under cover but lack of maintenance meant that when the rain poured it rained just as much under the back verandah as it was outside.

There were leaks everywhere and the room I had picked looked like it was going to flood with the water not getting draining away. I got up on the roof and cleared the gutter which helped.

I don't know what the story is with the stone hut. It is fairly modern. There was information on Ruby Creek mine but not so much about the hut. They also say not to camp in the hut but I'll beg forgiveness later.

Walked down a fire trail just to get to a creek.
Had to climb a hill to get back out though

Stone Hut Mt Werong camp

raining again

inside as well

Set up inner in this room. More light here.
Although it did smell a little. But I do to.

Day 194 Zero day Rydal

 NSW Day 52 (194) Saturday 4th December, 2021

The view

Not much today. Sat and relaxed. When the sun shone I enjoyed it. Threw a few darts in the pub. Had dinner enjoyed the relaxation.

I planned the next leg. Probably 14 or 15 days to Canberra. The leg after is into the Snowy Mountains and I want some of these niggles to go before I head up there. So shorter days and relaxation. Rain is due later in week but it looks like a cool week.

Storm moving in

The afternoon view