Hainsworth Hut to Murray Gap, AAWT, Kosciuszko National Park - November 2017

Mt Bogong, Mt Kosciuszko and now Bimberi Peak, if nothing else I'd managed to climb the highest three peaks in each of the states or territories that I'd walked through:)

Waking this morning I had a bit of a plan. I’d decided to push on pretty quickly and try to make it across the Cotter and Orroral Rivers tomorrow before the predicted big falls of rain arrived, or at least get across the rivers before they had too much of a chance to rise and cut me off. The plan then would involve me heading to Honeysuckle Creek Camp Ground where hopefully Sam would pick me up and take to Canberra for the night to avoid the worst of the storms, dropping me back on the AAWT first thing the next morning. There was an issue (well actually there were plenty of issues) with this plan, yeah Sam didn’t actually know about it. So my whole cunning plan was relying on me getting a mobile signal in the next couple of days, something that I hadn’t managed since Kiandra.

I got another pretty early start this morning.

With a hot and long day in front of me I was packed up and on my way early again, the mist was still rising in the shallow valley below the hut as I retraced my way back out to rejoin Mosquito Creek Trail and headed north again. Like yesterday, Mosquito Creek Trail allowed for some nice views, initially at least. Climbing towards Harrys Gap the country changes a bit to forested walking, this was the first real forested section since back south of Thredbo so it was a bit of a novelty this morning. Harrys Gap sounds serious but in reality I barely noticed the AAWT climbing, the gap being probably only 20 or 30 metres higher than the surrounding country .

Mosquito Creek Trail was pretty good walking again this morning.

Climbing towards Harrys Gap, the open forest made a bit of a change after all the wide grassy plains that I'd been walking for days.

Dropping down the other side of Harrys Gap, Mosquito Creek Trail heads across the flat country to the north of Tantangara Reservoir, it was along here that I got a glimpse of the historic Old Currango Homestead sitting lonely across Currango Plain. Bypassing the old homestead this morning I started another long, but very gentle climb, this time up to Blue Waterhole Saddle. Once again this open saddle was barely perceptible in the rolling country, but dropping down the north side onto Cooleman Plain confirmed that ! was indeed over the Gurrangorambla Range. Once on Cooleman Plain the open grassy walking resumed again, after bypassing the side track out to Bill Jones Hut I headed across the plain towards Blue Waterholes Trail.

Gurrangorambla Range

Climbing Mosquito Creek Trail towards Blue Waterholes Saddle.

Cooleman Plain

Cooleman Plain was home to a fair population of feral horses.

After refilling my water bottle at Seventeen Flat Creek and unsuccessfully trying to get a signal on my phone it was time to set off along Blue Waterholes Trail. Since parting ways with the Grey Nomads back at Kiandra I hadn’t actually bumped into another person so Blue Waterholes Trail was a bit of a shock to the senses this morning, between large groups of bushwalkers, horse riders and mountain bikers it seemed every man and his dog was out on Blue Waterholes Trail this morning, this was all good for me as once again after a few days with only myself for conversation I was up for a chat.

Seventeen Flat Creek

Blue Waterholes Trail

Bimberi Peak is just visible above the mountains.

Blue Waterholes Trail also marked the place that I’d see my last brumbies on my AAWT walk, these feral horses enjoying the the open plains beneath the Bimberi Range. Speaking of open plains this was also more or less the end of me frolicking my way northwards over seemingly endless grassy alpine plains, from here on things were generally a little more hilly, well with one or two exceptions. Oh yeah, and speaking of hilly I arrived at the deserted Oldfields Hut for a late lunch and after perusing the hut log book discovered that my fellow AAWT traveller Hilly, had spent the night here last night. By the time I arrived at Oldfields Hut all the other punters had dropped off again and I was once again on my own. This old hut would be a great spot to spend the night I reckon, with plenty of open grassy areas to pitch your tent and a magic view towards Bimberi Peak I’ve already got it pencilled in for a return visit.

Climbing up to meet Murray Gap Trail I passed this UFO.

Oldfields Hut

The view from the verandah of this old hut is pretty sweet, I'll be back one day.

Leaving Oldfields Hut the Murray Gap Trail dropped a little to cross over the beautiful Goodradigbee River, before starting the reasonably solid climb up to Murray Gap. As I’ve already mentioned my days of relaxed walking across gently undulating plains were now pretty much over and while the climb was only around 250 metres it was the most sustained one that I’d had for many days. Luckily the track was pretty well graded and I found myself arriving at Murray Gap way before I’d thought that I would have, this was a good thing as I had a plan for the rest of the afternoon. After setting up camp beneath the Snowgums in the gap I grabbed some water and essential gear and set off to climb the Australian Capital Territories Highest mountain, Bimberi Peak. Oh that’s right, I forgot to mention that Murray Gap marks the border between NSW and the ACT, progress was still being made!

Another day, another Wilderness Area!

The infant Goodradigbee River.

The country was starting to get a bit rockier as I approached the ACT.

Murray Gap Trail climbing towards the gap.

I'm guessing these old marker posts are a left over from the hydro construction?

Apart from the view from Bimberi Peak I was also banking on the summit giving me my best shot at getting a mobile signal out to Sam to let her know of my new plan. The pad up Bimberi Peak starts off a little scrubby and ill defined, it’s followable but needs a little concentration especially when it levels off occasionally to cross small snow plains. The good news is that as I was largely following a broad ridge line so it would be pretty hard to go too far wrong and the more height that I gained the more defined the pad became. With Bimberi Peak being 1913 metres high the upper reaches of the mountain feature a lot of windswept gnarly Snowgums and snow grass, all mingled into a bit of a labyrinth of large granite boulders, a reasonable cairn line makes navigation pretty easy though.

My Murray Gap Camp, you need to camp west of the sign unless you have a permit to camp in the water catchment.

Things start off a bit scrubby on the climb up Bimberi Peak.

Arriving on the summit I pulled out my phone and sure enough there was a decent signal, actually I had a strong enough signal to get online and check the weather forecast again as well. Weather wise things were looking even worse than had been predicted early in the week so I was pretty happy to get in contact with Sam and organise a pick up for late tomorrow afternoon, it would make tomorrow another very solid day though, and with the storms meant to arrive mid afternoon I’d probably end up coping a bit of weather as well. With the logistics all sorted I relaxed a little and took in the beautiful alpine scenery surrounding me, in one direction I could see the endless plains that I’d been walking across for days, in another I could see Cotter Dam down in a steep sided valley and just visible beyond the mountains I could make out some of the buildings in Canberra, my walk was now quickly coming to it’s conclusion.

The view from the summit of Bimberi Peak is pretty extensive as you would imagine.

Cotter Dam

If you squint you can make out some of the buildings in Canberra.

Namadgi National Park

With my phone beeping away it was a slow descent back down to Murray Gap this evening, I had so many messages coming through that I was starting to think that I wouldn’t make it down before dark if I stopped to answer them all. There was a good side to my slow descent though and that was once again the early evening light, the slowly setting sun lighting up the alpine scenery. Eventually I emerged from the scrub onto the open grassy Murray Gap around thirty minutes before sunset, just in time to cook dinner in-between taking a few photos of what I was guessing would be my last good sunset. With the sun dropping below the horizon it was into the tent for another night of reading and listening to ABC local radio on my little radio.

Time to head back down to Murray Gap, if you look carefully you might notice some of the cairns.

It must be a wild old spot up here in bad weather.

The early evening light was good for my photos again.

The Dirt.
I walked 35 kilometres and climbed 990 metres on another hard day on the AAWT. Over my 37 days of walking the AAWT so far I’ve walked 686 kilometres and climbed 27,270 metres. Camping and water were all pretty straightforward today, although unless you have a permit to camp in the Cotter Catchment (and I didn’t) you need to camp to the west of Murray Gap, thankfully there is a nice grassy spot about 5 metres west of the signpost marking the gap. Navigation on the AAWT is pretty straightforward again today, the AAWT following old grassy fire tracks again. Navigation on the side trip up to Bimberi Peak is a little harder, there is a pad but you’ll probably get a bit of a scrub massage down low, higher up the hill the pad is easier to follow with enough rock cairns around to make life pretty easy. I got a Telstra mobile signal from the summit today. I used Chapman’s notes and maps today as well as carrying Rooftop’s Kosciuszko Northern Activities Map Kiandra - Tumut in case I needed an over view.

Relevant Posts.

AAWT, Day 1, October 2017.

AAWT, Previous day, November 2017.

Dinner tonight was once again interrupted as I staggered to my feet to take yet another photo.

I was pretty certain that this was going to be my last great sunset on my AAWT stroll.