10.94km +377m -170m
Got driven out to Kiandra by Tim (thanks bro!) and started walking south. It’s good to be back on the track. The wind is strong but not annoyingly so, and just cool enough to counter the warming effect of hiking.
Rod, who you may remember from such adventures as “the time two idiots walked a stupid distance mostly together” decided he loved the AAWT so much he’s doing the ⅔ of it from Hotham onwards. I figured I’d tag along for the last bit to keep him out of trouble and because I have nothing better to do than listen to him bellyache for a bit over 100km.
It’s quite pretty up here, in a bleak, sky-too-big sort of way.
It’s been a rough walk for Rod. His son joined him from the start, but had to drop out after a day and a half with blisters and foot pain. Remember kiddies; you have to train for this shit. It might be for the best though, because since then it’s been one wave of thunderstorms and heavy rain after the next. Looking at the weather it seems I’ve jumped in just in time to get the only decent window of weather that he’ll experience.
I had a pretty leisurely 11km walk in to Broken Dam Hut. This one was recently rebuilt after burning down in 2019(?). Apparently nearby Happys Hut has been rebuilt at some point in the last year also.
The flowers are blooming, the frogs are croaking, and squadrons of killer March flies drone murderously about my legs.
I get to the hut before Rod, and after an hour I get sick of waiting so I wander up the track until I meet him.
At great personal effort I’ve lugged in a bag of chips and a ham and cheese sandwich for him, and there’s a bottle of Coke chilling in the creek. We spend some time catching up and then are joined in the hut by Richard from Benalla who has also walked in from Kiandra today and who’s out for a seven day walk back the way Rod has come. We bullshit until the light fades and it’s time to turn in. It’s going to be 6° overnight and I’ve cleverly decided to save weight by bringing my summer weight quilt and few extra clothes.
