Friday 28th

A late start…10:30am. Up Victor Spur Road as the supposed GAW track is …invisible!

4kms up the road we stopped to see a Boart Longyear drilling rig in operation looking for gold for Goldstar mines [asx: gdr] Thanks to Mitch the driver for all his share tips too! An uneventful walk to the Walhalla road past the old surveyors stump. Camped beside the St Elma road that night after a long search for water, which we eventually found half a km down this road and a few kms down the creek shown on the map. We were collected next day by car.

Notes:

Water:
No matter how old or tough you think you are, carry 3 litres of water at all times, especially in Summer as creeks may run dry.

Food:
Those supermarket heat up packs work well. They are a little heavier to carry but worth it when you are craving for a delicious hot meal of meat and veggies after a long day. Deb potato powder is a great emergency food as are dried peas; instant noodle packs; milk powder and chocolate drink powder. Also worth bringing: Soft and boiled lollies, sesame seed bars, cheese and biscuit snack packs.

Cooking:
Pocket rocket [with small cylinder] gas cooker lasts for 5 days ie 10 meals. Some of the boys had metho cookers…basically metho mixed with water in a cut-in-half billy sized can which works well .

Clothing:
You experience all seasons in the mountains and during the course of a day need to remove clothing and add clothing constantly as you get cold, wet, hot etc.  This list is not comprehensive but includes essentials: Rimmed hat for warmer months, poncho…buy a heavy duty one for about $50…bring a baseball style cap to wear under poncho to keep face dry…especially if you wear glasses, thermal top, long sleeve shirt, t- shirt with collar, loose trousers, 3 pair woolen socks, well worn in boots or h.d runners with thick soles, sunglasses, beanie, gloves.

Test all new equipment b4 you start… in the back yard overnight!
I had inadvertently purchased the wrong gas bottles and had no way of replacing them up on Mt Whitelaw!

Good luck if you decide to do this same stretch of the GAWT - the pain has long been forgotten but the great memories live forever.

Cheers
Kees

The End.

Thursday 27th

9:30 am and we back-tracked a few kms and crossed the Thompson River where an old log provides access to a steep track, well defined, that leads to Mt Elston.  The log is found almost opposite the Basalt Hill.

GAWT markers are visible again from here.  It takes an hour to climb to the 770 metre high contour line north of the river…. jumpers were soon off as we strained backs and legs up that track.

Little Easton marker reached at 11:15. Looks like a Drott had fun clearing a wide track from here on, which made for uncomfortable walking, with logs and debris everywhere. Mt Easton reached at mid-day. Here the track is hard to find, so we simply used the compass and found it again as it contoured around the hill on the other side. From here we followed it to Casper Ck track.

The road/walking track here is well cleared and neat stacks of cleared logs are everywhere. The Jordan River reached at 2pm, but so overgrown with blackberries that we headed to Red Jacket before we dropped our bundles. We managed to find enough ripe blackberries for desert, and enjoyed a splash in the clear flowing river. Sad to see an old stone house wall but almost nothing else left of the once thriving town that a forlorn plaque at the river’s edge boasts existed there a century or more ago.

End of Part IV

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Wednesday 26th

A 9am start after a very chilly night and we reached Mt Whitelaw by 10am.
A few kms below the peak the track mysteriously widens as if a 2-meter slasher has kindly cleared the way.

Another 3 kms and a sign to our left points to Tooronga Road …but not a track or passable way is visible.

Stronach’s camp reached at noon but again not a sign of any thing anywhere that looks usable. We searched for a hut but after half an hour continued without finding anything, except a marshy creek. The Thompson Valley road is reached a few kms further on from here.

Here the official map is wrong.  The real track continues off the Thompson Valley  road. …So turn right and after a few hundred metres a small clearing on the left has a sign leading almost in a NNE direction up the hill. At the crest a new forest of gum trees is skirted and eventually leads back into the old growth forest and more easily identifiable track signs. No water avail until later in the day at the Thompson River. Reached trig point at 2:30. From here we took the Upper Thompson road and then the Basalt Hill track. ……Quite easy and pleasant walking and appears to be the ‘correct’ walking track. Reached the Thompson River at 4:30pm.

Could find no hut [as marked on the Mt Gregory 8112-4-2 map] so we traveled another few kms to the right along the road and found a small tributary and a clearing near the bend in the road, which proved a comfortable campsite.

End of Part III

Tuesday 25th

With one less walker we started at 9:30am and stopped for morning tea and photos at Mushroom rocks. Another 40 minutes and after more challenging climbs we stood on top of Mt Erica. Walking thereafter was a little flatter. There is some marshy drinking water available at Mt St Gwinear, about 200metres from the main track on the way to the car park… we did not boil it and survived!

Some more interesting walking up and down continuously until we passed the Mt Baw Baw turnoff to our left. From that point the ‘tourist’ track finishes and quickly becomes a goat track …suggest long pants going through a few kms of bushes that almost hide the track.

‘Dynamite Dom’  led the way and even when he turbo boosted his stride and left us well behind he was kind enough to leave his scent for us to follow.  Thanks again Dom!

Lesson: No baked beans on long hikes!

Exhausted and almost ready to crawl under the nearest gum tree we persevered beyond our plans to stop at about 5pm and made camp a half hour later at an old hut site.

The chimney still remains and was a perfect place to dry our clothes and heat us up with a roaring fire as the cold night set in. Water is available in the valley but again quite marshy. Watch your food here as a rodent has apparently made his home on a ledge high up in the chimney.

‘Dynamite’ awoke to find half his chocolate supply chewed up…he was not a happy camper!

End of Part II

Walhalla to Mt Selma 5 day hike - 24th March to 29th March 2008

The Walkers:

• Pat (Tree Hugger)
• Austin (Run Run)
• Jacob (Misery)
• Hamish (Insane)
• Vincent (Blisters)
• Joshua (Are we there yet?)
• Dominic (Dynamite Dom)
• Jeremy (Still Waters)

All capably lead by the author - Kees (I’m three times your age!)

All members of the Knights of Our Lady Troop, dedicated to restoring the reign of Christ the King through encouraging our youth to live noble and courageous Catholic lives.

‘Pain is weakness leaving the body’ - our good friend Major Bernie never tires in reminding us!

Monday  24th

With the Vic map Walhalla 8122-s map in hand we set off at c. 10am and immediately misread the map and wasted an hour walking too far up the Happy Jack creek track and missing the goat track that led off to the right towards the Steel bridge. We had decided at the start not to cross the river [and walk the official Mormon Town track] as we would be crossing the Thompson at that bridge anyway.We had an early lunch at the bridge and I suggest one should fill up all bottles here as the climb ahead drains the fluids… even on a cold day!

O’Shea’s Mill is the next stop after a long and steady uphill climb about an hour from the bridge. So far we had only done 8kms and some of the boys were already giving me dirty looks. We had now ‘warmed up’ and the next 2.5 hours were spent climbing up and up a never-ending track until we reached the Mt Erica road. ‘Are we there yet?’ was a constant wailing request from one who was exhausted and so the next 1.5 hours saw us encourage him to keep going… and he did.  He collapsed at the Mt Erica car park as we pitched tents,  just on dusk,  and was soon collected by his father and returned to civilization.

End of Part I