Life Trove: Hiking Cowombat Flat

I just arrived back from 3 days of hiking in the Victorian Alps. It was something of a disaster but I learned some important lessons so wouldn't change the experience.

I drove there (a supposed 9 hour journey) with Jez who I had never met before. Jez is a very chatty guy originally from England who was a hardcore ultra endurance athlete until recent health issues forced him to take it a bit easier. He regaled me in the car with many stories of past races and exploits.

My GPS took us a roundabout way plus we got delayed in Albury where Jez needed to buy some stuff. So we were two hours late getting into Benambra where we were supposed to meet the other hikers (Chris, the hiking leader, and two others with him.) They went on ahead of us to the camp site, aproximately 50 km's in the middle of nowhere, but they gave Jez some instructions over the phone on how to get there.

In the rush, we failed to fill up with petrol so arrived in Benambra with less than a third of a tank - and the petrol station in the tiny town was closed. But we had more than enough petrol to get to the camp site and back.

We arrived in Benambra and decided to drive directly onto the camp site. However, after driving 60 kilometers or more into the bundu along gravel tracks, we arrived at an abandoned mine with a closed boom so we realised we'd taken a wrong turn. We drove around trying to find where we'd gone wrong, but it proved futile. We realised we'd need to drive back into Benambra to get help with directions as there was no mobile reception.

On arriving back at the tiny town, we got some advice from locals in the bar and one guy seemed to really know what he was talking about. The Internet reception in the town was virtually non existent with my provider so it impossible to double check. We headed off again into the dark, our petrol now much lower than I'd have liked. We arrived at The National Park sign and eventually came to a sign to a camp site which led down a very rickety and steep gravel road which we drove down a fair way and started to seriously doubt things were right. By now petrol, was getting dangerously low. We didn't know if we even had enough to get back to town, certainly not enough to go on a hunt for the camp site. It was now also very late so we decided to park on the side of the road and wait for morning and hope that maybe Chris would drive up to find us.

After a rather uncomfortable night sleeping in the car, we decided to head back to the town once again and fill up with petrol and try to buy a map from the local store. The petrol gauge on the way back was well in the red all the way and I kept expecting the car to splutter and come to a halt. It was a great sense of relief when we got into town. When I opened my fuel cap, there was a strong sucking sound created by the vacuum of so little petrol in the tank.

We managed to buy a map from a tiny store and were able to see where we'd gone wrong. The map also had 4 wheel drive tracks and some walking tracks on it, so we pinpointed the circuit we were supposed to hike. We decided to press on and catch Chris and the others up who we weren't able to contact due to lack of reception.

We arrived at the correct camp site at around 10 am. A little down the road from the camp site was a track leading into the wilderness with a sign saying "Cowombat Flat" No doubt, that was the way. We donned on our heavy packs and started walking at a hectic pace. The track was wide and steep and undulating, a track more for 4x4 vehicles than hikers but the map seemed to indicate it would convert into more of a walking track further ahead. We pinpointed the camp site we wanted to get to. The going was tough but we managed to stop for a lovely swim in a creek where some friendly people were camping with their 4x4's. We arrived at the camp site just before dark and erected tents and bathed our legs in the cool river. My new camping stove proved a winner and I fried up onions with my pasta to torture poor Jez.

Next morning, we pressed on. As we progressed, the track remained wide. It was extremely arduous, undulating up and down constantly. In the afternoon, it started to climb and kept going up, so steep it was hard in places to stay balanced. However, despite the elevation, there were surprisingly few viewpoints - the scenery constantly obstructed by trees. I became increasingly dubious the track was ever going to turn into a proper walking track but Jez seemed pretty sure. Poor Jez was suffering from extreme sore feet from the rocky track with bad blisters.

After an epic climb, we arrived at something of a look up point. It was late afternoon on the second day. Suddenly the track came to a bit of a T-junction which surprised us as it wasn't on the map we were following. We sat down to mull on that, and being high up, I realised I finally had one bar of mobile reception. I google mapped our location and horror of horrors, we discovered we were in a totally different place than we expected, on a 4x4 track to nowhere. Certainly not a circuit path like we expected that was eventually going to take us back to the car. We realised the only option was to turn back.

Going back down the extremely steep down hills proved to be extremely difficult and we were forced to bundu bash along the side of the road to use trees and footholds to help us. We ended up running out of daylight before we could get back a camp site and ended up camping half way down a steep incline on a kind of ledge on the edge of the road - quite a challenge with Jez' big tent. I ended up camping on a different verge, very close to an ant nest, but thankfully none got in.

The next day (our third day; the day we were supposed to finish the hike), we pressed on back along the track. By now, Jez was in a lot of pain with his feet and calves giving him constant trouble and he wasn't sure how much further he could go. We made it back to our first night camp site to bathe our aching legs and feet. And then kept going. We were determined that if a 4x4 came along with some space, we'd beg a lift. We'd seen very few vehicles in our time on the track, but the few that had passed by had been full with camping gear and people. Then we lucked out. A vehicle came past (the first vehicle going in our direction that day) with some space for us. So we ended up driving the last 15 km's of the track to our car with a wonderful, friendly couple. It was fun to experience 4x4 driving on such an intensely steep track - a most memorable experience and one of the highlights of our "hike."

We arrived at our car with great relief and decided to head straight back to Sydney, sharing the driving and going right through the night. My GPS took us an even stranger route this time into the high mountains via seemingly all of Victoria's ski resorts. Time to trade dear Sheila in for a younger model I suspect!

All in all, the hike was classic "high effort, low pay-off" We were on a 4x4 track the whole way, and it was designed to give 4x4 enthusiasts lots of steep ups and downs to navigate rather than beautiful views. Certainly not designed for walkers.

However, despite all this, there were a couple of highlights ...

Jez and I did some close bonding and had some great, very open conversations about things. I learned a lot from him.
Realising how fit I've become. The hike was brutal but I felt pretty strong the whole way, and my legs only took a day to recover. I am far fitter now than I ever was in my youth.
The amazingly colourful beetles, including one that was a shiny gold.
Lovely flowers along the way for some macro shots to compensate for the lack of scenery.
Enormous ants.
Bathing our legs in the river.
Having a couple of lovely swims to cool off.
Getting the lift back on the final day and getting to connect with the lovely couple who gave us the lift.
Jez's huge tent which weighed almost nothing.

I learned some vital lessons from this experience that I'll never forget.

Fastidiously research where you're going ahead of time on Google Maps. Plan the route carefully. Don't rely solely on GPS.
Give yourself at the very least an extra hour to get there, it always takes longer than you think.
Fill up with petrol in rural Australia at every opportunity. Also, think seriously about taking spare petrol.
Buy a hiking GPS with really good maps of the area you're hiking in and research the hike ahead of time even if it's being led by someone else.
Don't head off into the wilderness without either a hiking GPS or a detailed topographical map.