| Day: | 018 |
| Date: | Friday, 1 April 2011 |
| Start: | Buckwong Creek plus 1km |
| Finish: | Cowombat Flat Track |
| Camp Location | Here |
| Daily Kilometres: | 20.7 |
| Total Kilometres: | 391.0 AAWT |
| Animal Encounters | Birds, brumbies |
| People Encounters | None |
| Weather: | Cold early then mostly sunny and mild |
| Pictures: | Here |
| Journal: | I had a good night's sleep and set off at 9 AM in good spirits, a little cold and still wearing warm gear. The guide book indicated there was a lot of "poorly defined" trail today and I was determined to be careful. The early trail was through the eucalypt forest with some scrub and my route-finding was helped by someone who had put out pink ribbon as markers to compensate for the paucity of official markers. I disturbed a couple of families of brumbies on the way and stopped after an hour take off my warm gear. Trail-finding without the markers is very difficult because the brumbies have worn many trails and it's easy to follow a wrong track. At one point I came across a dead horse lying in the middle of the track. Pretty smelly and fly-blown and I was holding my breath as I walked past. I eventually reached the mis-named Misery Trail on a ridge and enjoyed walking along through the snowgum forest. Around 11 AM I followed a wrong trail and found myself off-trail and trying to work out where I was and in which direction I should go in the forest. My mood sank, and I wasted 30 to 45 minutes crashing around on the scrubby hillsides. I fell twice in 10 minutes, twisting both knees in succession quite awkwardly. At last I located Macs Creek Track and found the right route soon after noon. After a break, I continued on the next "poorly defined" section of trail which again proved difficult to follow and included a very steep and awkward descent. Without getting lost on the section, I made better time than expected and reached a nice lunch spot next to the very pretty and fast flowing Dead Horse Creek. I took advantage of the sun to dry my tent and sleeping bag while I ate. Alas, as I left I followed some wrong ribbons and misunderstood where I was on the map, made a navigational error and wasted another hour crashing around on scrubby hillsides following misleading brumby trails. Eventually I got back on the right track and reached Limestone Creek Track in the mid-afternoon. After a slippery steep descent (falling once) and fording the fast flowing Creek, I had my last break before tackling the final "poorly defined" section of the day. I was tired and the 6 km of following faint trail on the steep sides of Stony Creek wasn't much fun. I strayed a few times but didn't get badly lost. The section finished with the steep and rocky ascent of a spur and I reached Cowombat Track, my goal for the day, at 7 PM. It was getting dark and I quickly set up camp, washed and ate. It wasn't as cold as last night but I expect a heavy dew again. |
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