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Journal: |
It was very cold in my cabin during the night and I woke a few
times wishing I was tucked up in my tent in my sleeping bag.
Determined to try and reach the trail finish at the Hovell Tree,
49km away in Albury, in daylight, I left the cabin in the pre-dawn
at 6:30am and set out at a good pace with light provided by a
fabulous moonset across Lake Hume.
The early trail passed
through the Ten Chain Stock Reserve, presumably part of the national
system of stock routes in rural Australia. As usual, the early
walking hours seemed the best. There was fog drifting in some
of the nearby valleys and frost in some of the pastures, as the sun
rose in clear skies and cold temperatures. On the radio, they
said the temperature in Albury was 0°C and it felt like it.
But as the morning wore on it became warmer and I gradually removed
layers to end up in the usual shorts and T-shirt.
After the
Stock Route, the balance of the morning was spent roadwalking, some
of it in thick fog, through the rural outskirts of Albury. It
was easy to make good time on the roads and I passed lots of
interesting farmlets and some nice views, but it is hard on the
feet. By the time I reached the suburb of Thurgoona in early
afternoon, where the trail began following footpaths and bike
trails, I was just plodding along, hanging out for the next break.
The trail-marking was hard to follow in places, and I began to rely
on the maps and GPS to confirm I was going the right way.
Suburban walking doesn't have a lot to recommend it, and I was
looking forward to the climb of East Hill in Albury for a change of
terrain and pace. All day, I had tried to cover at least 10km
between breaks and to keep the breaks short and was happy to see I
was on schedule as I approached East Hill and the final 10km.
The climb up the Hill on the foot trail was very welcome to my
road-pummelled feet, and at the top I was rewarded by some excellent
views into Victoria, along the Murray River, and way back from where
I had hiked. After a walk along the ridge of East Hill I made
a painful descent into central Albury and the final sole-destroying
and soul-destroying couple of kilometres across the town. The
sun was setting and it was a race to get to the Hovell Tree in
daylight. I made it at 5:25pm in just enough light to take a
few photographs, and then sat on a park bench for 15 minutes or so
to recover and ponder on my journey, as night fell and the air
cooled.
The trail had matched my expectations with its great
mix of rural and mountain Australian scenery, but I was surprised
not to have met a single hiker the whole way, travelling in either
direction. Maybe it's the distance from the Australian
population centres, but perhaps it just isn't well enough known.
It's a pity, because it's a great slice of Australia. The
camping facilities and guidebooks were excellent and I look forward
to running some of the trail in the Hume & Hovell 100km in October.
I will be back.
I finally roused myself from the park bench
and hobbled the half kilometre to my motel. After a shower, I
wandered downtown and bought some dinner to bring back to the motel,
and am looking forward to stretching out in my window seat on the
train tomorrow and looking at the mountains I have just traversed in
the distance to the east.
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