Day 6 – Happys Hut to Four Mile Hut

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Distant thunder rumble

Rumble hungry like the beast

Tuplelo bound

Nick Cave – Tupelo

From Happys Hut’ we cut straight up to the track. With how popular this shortcut is, I felt sure we’d find a footpad, but no such luck.

We began seeing the first real sign of horse activity so far, and the flies also became a menace.

I wanted to do Tabletop Mountain. Inga and Daniel joined me, while Scott and Robyn elected to walk around.

It’s a short sharp climb up Tabletop, but the views are well worth it.

We watched a huge rain storm pass us to the west, and a less angry one heading in or general direction. We legged it for the hut.

Broken Dam hut is great. It’s very roomy and has a verandah. We sat out what was left of the rain and had lunch. Though tempting, I left the can of off-brand spam sitting on the mantle piece.

We met four hikers heading southbound from Kiandra and exchanged pleasantries through a cloud of flies, then continued on to Four Mile Hut.

A lovely rustic recreation, it’s situated on the creek of the same name. The old timers recovered a lot of gold here, and in the process turned the whole creek upside-down, with huge lines of rocks piled up along the length of the creek. I had a quick pan using my cook pot and turned up two specks of gold (current market price: 3c)

The others were content to lounge around camp, so Robyn and I walked over (blissfully free of the weight of a pack) to Bloomfield Creek and found the falls there. Well worth a look. We also found two Tiger snakes, who were too fast to photograph, and one of which shot straight under our feet.

Not long after we got back it started raining, so we all sat and cooked dinner in the hut. At one point it peeled down hail, and we all watched our tents nervously from the door of the hut, but all of them survived. Once the rain finally let up it was time for bed. Bed time out here is 7pm.

I finished sewing the hammock I’ve brought on this trip two days before we started walking. Together with the tarp, quilt and underquilt, that means my entire sleep and shelter system was made by me. It’s an odd feeling to know that I’m relying for survival on things I made with my own hands, and gratifying to see that they seem to be handling the cold, the wind, the rain and hail well enough to ensure my continued survival. If I said I wasn’t a little nervous about Tasmania, my pants would spontaneously combust.