Rohan and Nigel Christmas Australian Alps Walking Track AAWT

Rohan and Nigel Christmas Australian Alps Walking Track

March 2008 Walhalla to Tharwa

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Monday 21^st April Day 37

Cotter Hut to Honeysuckle Creek

8:40am – 1:15pm walking time

The day is nearly over and we only have around 17km to go tomorrow until we reach the Tharwa Visitors Centre; and the end of the AAWT. Once again I experience the mixed emotions of being nearly finished. We could have pushed on and finished this afternoon but had no desire to be on the outskirts of Canberra late in the afternoon. This way we will be there before lunch tomorrow. Memories of today are the masses of kangaroos in Orroral Valley and the climb to Tower Rocks. I found the kangaroos good to see purely because the only animal I have seen en mass till today was the feral brumbies. The climb to Tower Rocks had Rohan and I panting like the good old days in Victoria at the start of the walk; it has some steep sections in it back there. We arrived at Honeysuckle Creek campground at had our lunch before slowly laying out all of our gear. Since there was water available we broke out the soap and had a wash. I washed my shirt, pants and jocks as well. This way we should not be so on the nose to other people tomorrow as we make our way into the CBD. I am still looking for a hot shower and putting all of the clothes through the washer and dryer though. There are a few other campers around here at the moment. It is good way to break back into the noise of civilisation slowly before the big shock of tomorrow.

Looking back at Bimberi Peak as we leave the Cotter River. Cotter Hut is to the left.

Looking northwards up the Cotter River towards Corin Dam.

Cotter Gap (between Cotter Valley and Orroral Valley)

There are some very big rocks at Cotter Gap.

Orroral Valley and finally some kangaroos (and no feral horses).

Tuesday 22^nd April Day 38

Honeysuckle Creek to Tharwa

6:540am – 10:10am walking time

We had an interesting night with the company of two army buddies and there children at a nearby campsite. They were even gracious enough to spare a little of there red wine for us (unfortunately it tasted bloody awful from a metal mug). We got up and going pretty early as we were both eager to be on our way towards the finish of the walk and civilisation. The last day of walking is pretty boring upon a well defined track that has way to many steps on it. It has been diverted and wanders a different path which is full of painful zigzags and hundreds of steps. If I was to do this section again I would cut directly from the northern most point on the slopes of Mt Tenant directly down one of the spurs and then cut across the farmland to the Tharwa Visitors Centre to avoid the track; it is that painful. When we arrived at the Visitors centre we received a warm welcome from Lisa McIntosh (ACT Environment & Recreation) as well as a couple of coffees each out of there coffee machine. Lisa has a lot to do with the AAWT and has a lot of interest and knowledge on the sections. We managed to score a lift to the outer suburbs and were dropped off at the bus stop near a large shopping centre. We were on the bus for nearly 30 minutes going down every little side street in the suburbs before the bus arrived back at the same stop where we got on (but now it was very full). Rohan was assaulted verbally by this old battleaxe who I presume was a member of some party who believes all people that commit public transport infractions be lynched. We had both committed selfish sin of having our backpacks beside ourselves and out of the aisle where we could stop them rolling/toppling over. She gave Rohan a good work over by starting with the phrase ‘do you speak English’. I gave here such a dirty look while I was laughing at her; she chose not to pick on me as well. The funny thing was that we were taking up 1 and a half seats each, but the only lady silly enough to sit beside me quickly vacated due to my aroma. If the old lady decided to pick on me I was going to sit right beside her so she could enjoy it personally. Rohan found it necessary to get off at the Woden exchange due to the coffee filling his bladder; he assured me 10 more minutes was in fact to long to wait. We caught an express bus shortly after and got off in the CBD. Rohan had abandoned earlier intentions to jump straight on the Wodonga bound bus and sit for 4 more hours after he figured out how much we stank. We had been getting funny looks and people generally moved away from us on the bus trips to the CBD. We checked into the YHA hostel and went shopping for soap and disinfectant solution before returning to wash all of the clothes and indulge in a shower. We had a relatively easy night with a few drinks and some Italian food before retiring for the night. We had purchased tickets for the bus to Wodonga for the following day as well.