|
A winter trip is similar to standing at the
base of a large hill that is to be climbed. It can be quite hard
to get motivated but the rewards are worth it.
This Queens Birthday weekend trip was at
Tallangatta, east of Wodonga. The reasons for selecting this location
were that it hadn't been attempted for a few years, interesting
walks and statistically more sunny days than Melbourne during winter.
This last point paid off with sunny weather (balancing the cold
nights of below zero degrees).
The first walk was supposed to Flaggy Creek
Gorge. The northern approach appeared to be too short so I opted
for the longer southern approach. This was going to be too long
(estimated at more than 22km), so it was changed to a circuit walk
in the forest. This was OK but not as enticing as the gorge. My
excuse (leader's prerogative) is that the map scaling or track routing
was inaccurate (even the circuit walk was over 17km). Next time...
|
The second day was the
assault on Pine Mountain. This was only 12km, but was expected
to take 6-8 hours! Completion was a stretch target (management
speak) and realistically unlikely. However, it wasn't necessary
as there were numerous views along the way. The group opted
to stop at a lookout with views of the snow covered mountains
in the direction of Mt. Kosciusko - just after I made an exploratory
trek down into the next valley!
|
|
As the return trek was much faster, this presented
the opportunity for those who wanted more to complete a short(ish)
walk to the Valley View Lookout in the Mt. Lawson State Park. Surprisingly,
there were a few die-hard walkers who were interested.
 |
There were also three girls who were
not and raced back into the car ready for immediate departure
with their eyes fixed straight ahead, while trying to ignore
me and not look guilty.
Valley View lookout proved to be a
moderate climb (my terminology) to a lookout encompassing
the Murray River and valley area.
|
The last day was a short(ish) and
easy(ish) walk beginning at Woolshed falls (pictured), with
most of the group then walking to Beechworth. The first
3km was flat followed by a steep climb, however some great
views over the cascades and valley make it worthwhile.
David Sale
|
|
|
