High Country Trip - Dargo to Hotham
High Country Trip - Dargo to Hotham
Anzac Day Weekend in the High Country
4 days spent in the High Country with Stevo in a Disco 1, Trevor in a Rangie and Darren in a Cruiser.
Travelling on my own and driving pretty close to the extent of my abilities most of the time there aren’t many pictures on this trip, with the majority taken whilst stationary. The few pictures I tried to take whilst on the move either came out blurry or ended up being of the dash, steering wheel or similar.
Stevo prepared a Google Earth KMZ file of the weekend which can be downloaded from here. The 4x4 section begins at waypoint “69-track” You really need to rotate your view to get a sense of the topography of the land though.
Album: Day 1 - High Country - Anzac Day Weekend
Friday, 23 April 2010
It was a slow trip taking close to 5.5 hours before I made it to camp at Ollie’s Jump up, which is just north east of Dargo, this was also not helped by the fact that I had to wait 30 mins at Dargo to fill up with fuel due to a guy filling a 1000ltr diesel tank on a trailer.
On arriving it was almost dark and I found Trevor at camp sitting by the fire and shortly after Darren turned up, we setup camp and then had quite a few drinks before Stevo arrived around 11pm. |
Album: Day 2 - High Country - Anzac Day Weekend
Saturday, 24 April 2010
Since we were going to return to camp the following night, there was no need to pack up but by the time we had breakfast and recovered from the night before it was a late start.
Today we made our along Upper Dargo Rd to Birregun Rd and then along Murdering Spur Track towards Camms Top Place. This was once a potato farm and I found it interesting that it was quite civilized in its day. The walls were even wallpapered this was done by covering the walls in hessian and then laying the wallpaper over the hessian.
On the road again we made our way along Dane Tk and onto Messmate Link, after Stevo having a couple of attempts to make it up the heavily rutted track it was my turn. After falling into the ruts with an almighty crash which caused the dash to light up like a Christmas tree I chickened out.
We backtracked along Dane Tk and onto Wild Horse Tk, which Messmate link would have taken us out and onto, from here we made our way along Jones Rd back to camp. |
Album: Day 3 - High Country - Anzac Day Weekend
Sunday, 25 April 2010
Due to the rain the prior day and during the night we found the Dargo river this morning a couple of feet deeper than last night and it was no longer clear.
After packing up camp we headed off towards Mt Ewan Spur Tk, this is a steep climb and with the rain overnight it was slippery, I found myself heading up side-ways when my rear wheels slid into the ruts and then again facing the opposite direction when I came out of the ruts.
After stopping at the helicopter landing pad we made our way along Downey Rd to Treasures huts.
There are three huts on the site, the first hut was built in 1939 by Harry Treasure, the second hut was built for Freda Treasure as her bedroom in about 1945 the third hut was built in the 1960s.
From here we made our way along High Plains Rd and onto Ritchies Rd which offered amazing views since the fires went through. Although this is an easy drive there is still a need to keep an eye open for such things as the fallen tree.
We stopped at an old railway carriage which is known as Basalt Knob Hut, this was once a chilled railway carriage built in 1894 and worked by loading a tube full of ice. I am told the legend of this hut is that a truck broke down whilst carrying it in the 1970's and unloaded it and never returned. Why a truck carrying this was here in the first place is beyond me?
Along Basalt Knob North Tk onto the much famed Blue Rag Range Tk which takes you to a trig point at the top of Mount Blue Rag. This is an amazing track that crests a ridge with staggering drops to both sides in places of a thousand feet to the valleys below, the trig point at 1718m ASL provides a 360 degree panorama of Hotham, Feathertop and the Bogong complex.
Before the rain hit and it got dark we made our way down towards Mayford t o make camp, travelling along the High Plains Rd and the boggy Kings Spur Tk. We were foiled by the Dargo River which was deep and running very fast, with the sun fading we made camp a short distance away.
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Album: Day 4 - High Country - Anzac Day Weekend
Monday, 26 April 2010
Home day today, it was cold overnight and everything is covered in ice, we pottered around until finally the sun was high enough to hit our camp from over the ridge. Once the sun arrived everything began thawing including us and small chunks of ice began falling from the leaves of the trees as it began to warm them.
We stopped at Broad Gully Hut on the way out which is located on private land before making our way out on the rocky and boggy King Spur Tk. |