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| Cascade Trail made for pretty easy walking along the AAWT today. |
Wow, last night at Tin Mine Huts was an experience. The private school boys from Canberra certainly covered themselves in glory, ignoring their teachers, swearing like troopers and generally being a pain in the arse, thankfully I was happy enough enclosed in my tent listening to my little radio and reading but I had to feel a bit sorry for their teachers and outdoor education instructor. Sitting outside my tent having brekky this morning the outdoor ed guy wandered over to apologise for their behaviour, when I asked him where the boys were from he said “******* grammar in Canberra, our next batch of conservative politicians”, I suddenly felt even sorrier for him!
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| Tin Mine Huts were all quiet when I left this morning. |
The good news was that the kids headed out pretty early this morning, I think the instructors had a bit of a death march planned for them today…. After Matilda and Felicity headed off I was suddenly alone, life was back to normal on the AAWT. I didn’t have far to go today and with the weather having not really cleared from last night, I lingered for awhile at the now peaceful Tin Mine Huts, waiting for a good patch of weather before packing up the tent. It was mid morning when I eventually shouldered my pack and climbed out of the valley onto Cascade Trail and the AAWT.
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| Looking down over the Ingeegoodbee River this morning the weather didn't look great. |
The good news today was that while I wasn’t 100%, I was still feeling a lot better than I did yesterday. The bad news was that it looked like the rain wasn’t clearing anytime soon. I’d follow Cascade Trail all the way to Cascade Hut today so there was no navigational issues as I shuffled along the closed vehicle track. Initially at least the rain held off for the most part, and Cascade Track was pretty easy walking as it headed north with almost no climbing involved. Cascade Trail occasionally breaking out of the trees to cross open areas of snow grass which, even accounting for today’s gun metal grey sky were very picturesque.
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Cascade Trail
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There are a few nice openings along Cascade Trail after leaving Tin Mine Huts.
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Getting closer to Cascade Hut the AAWT stared to rise and fall a bit....and the rain came in a bit harder.
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| The focus of my world now. |
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At about the same time that Cascade Trail started to rise and fall a bit the rain got serious as well. Stashing everything away in dry bags I sloshed my way along Cascade Trail lost in the claustrophobic world that my jacket hood allowed me to see. Cascade Trail climbs a little along here crossing over a couple of alpine streams that were rushing down from the clouds today. After making one last decent climb I reached the turn off to Cascade Hut, dropping down to the old hut I was pretty happy to see no tents around, after last night I was keen for a quiet night tonight.
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There are a few nice little creeks crossing Cascade Trail nearing Cascade Hut.
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Cascade Trail climbing again just before arriving at Cascade Hut.
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Arriving at the hut I found Matilda and Felicity cranking up the open fire, apart from the ladies the place was deserted, awesome! I hadn’t left Tin Mine Huts until after 10am this morning and it was before 3pm when I arrived at
Cascade Hut so today had definitely been a lot easier than my normal days on the AAWT. My fairly quick walk no doubt helped by the rain which meant that for the most part I wash’t mucking around taking too many photos, good for my speed but not so good for my post perhaps?
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Whoohoo, blue sky!
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I spent a very convivial afternoon and evening with Matilda and Felicity curing the ills of the world in front of the fire as the showers passed through, only venturing outside to put up the tent and grab some water from Cascade Creek in between the showers. It was nice to spend an easy day in such great company after yesterday’s crappy day. Retiring to the tent after dinner I turned on my little radio and for the second time on my AAWT adventure I heard AC/DC on our national broadcaster. Today was the day that Malcolm Young had passed away, having another one of my favourites go really forces you to contemplate your own mortality…well it did for me anyway.
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Cascade Hut
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| Felicity and Matilda at Cascade Hut, the ladies were great company, not even complaining about sharing the hut with the somewhat smelly and grubby Feral walker. |
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The Dirt.
I walked 16 kilometres today and climbed 450 metres on what was probably a medium grade day on the AAWT. On the 28 days of my AAWT walk so far I’d walked 475 kilometres and climbed 22,005 metres. Water today was available in a couple of spots along Cascade Trail in the last few kilometres before I arrived at Cascade Hut. Camping would be possible in quite a few spots today, but Cascade Hut is the pick from what I saw. Water for camp at Cascade Hut is from Cascade Creek 100 metres or so from the hut, down in the valley. There was no navigational difficulties today and there was no mobile signal, although with all the rain around I didn’t try the phone until I got the tent up at Cascade Hut. I was using John Chapman’s notes and maps along with Rooftop’s Corryong-Omeo-Thredbo Adventure Map for an overview.
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