Day 10 – Blue Waterholes to Murray’s Gap

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An absolutely gorgeous morning. The kangaroos were grazing and the foxes were sneaking. When I went to bed I briefly thought “this car campers yapping away is annoying” then immediately fell asleep. But the early rising hikers have the campsite to themselves.

The walk out of Blue Waterholes climbs steadily up to the plain, then sidles around it for a while before rejoining the official route of the AAWT.

A while later we turn off and visit Pockets Hut for morning tea. There was s lone NPWS ranger there doing some repairs. The view from the verandah up to the back side of Bimberi really is lovely.

Then it’s a quick ship across the creek and more track walking. We climb up and up then drop down to Oldfields Hut for lunch on the verandah. The stone fruit trees here have no fruit.

We arrive at Murray’s Gap, the saddle between Mount Bimberi and Mount Murray and the border of the ACT in the early afternoon and set up camp. The NZ lady from the other day had left her pack here, and after a while comes strolling down from Bimberi. She’s having a blast. It’s heartening to see somebody new to multi day walking take to it so readily (and apparently using gear assembled on a shoestring budget, compared to the many thousands of dollars of gear our group is carrying between them)

Inga and Robyn have both climbed Bimberi (Canberra’s highest peak) before, so I take Daniel and Scott up.

The climb is steady and relentless, but beautiful, and eventually we reach the summit and are rewarded with fantastic views over the ACT and back the way we’ve come.

It’s a great place to sit and rest for a while. The sun is warm and the wind is cool.

We arrive back at camp and make dinner. Just as the sun sinks and the flies disappear, the mosquitos come out in squadrons. That’s what you get for camping in a swamp, I guess.

We’re getting closer to home, passing through familiar trampling grounds. It’s a welcoming feeling, but it also foreshadows the end of our walk.