Joanne on Crosscut Saw, day 12 John Drysdale

The Australian Alps Walking Track (AAWT) reaches from Walhalla in Gippsland, Victoria, to the Namadji National Park Visitor’s Centre in the ACT. It's one of the premier Australian long-distance walks. This is the story of one trip.

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Walking the AAWT had been on my bushwalking “to-do” list from the time I first became aware of it in the early 1990s. In late 2015, some 25 years later, I was finally able to tick it off that list. I started from Walhalla in late November 2015 and finished at the Namadji Visitor’s Centre just before the New Year. At about 680 kilometres and taking 38 walking days to complete it was my longest walk to date and the only multi-day walk I have done with another person, as I usually prefer to walk alone.

For me the AAWT was the ultimate walking challenge; its reputation as the most difficult Australian long-distance track only made it all the more appealing. The bigger the goal the more motivated I find myself to complete it and it is fair to say that I live for my outdoor adventures. Whilst I consider myself to be well experienced and equipped for an adventure like this, I also thought that this track with its somewhat formidable reputation might require something more. This is why rather than attempting it on my own I arranged to walk it with a friend, John. We met bushwalking on Fraser Island and walked some of Western Australia's Bibbulmun Track together.

As exciting as it is to start a walk there is also a lot of enjoyment for me in the preparation, which is lucky as the AAWT is a walk that requires a massive effort in that department. I spent a full year mulling over my gear choices, working on my track fitness and

enjoying several week-long shake-down walks which included the Cape to Cape Track in Western Australia as well as a 10 day walk through Fraser Island and Cooloola National Park using the Great Walk trails. There was also the walking itinerary to prepare, resupply drops to plan and the not so small task of shopping for, dehydrating and assembling meals for those resupply drops. After twelve months of preparation plus three full days placing the drops we were on our way, walking down the AAWT out of Walhalla. I remember feeling this overwhelming sense of relief when all the hard work of the preparation was behind me and we were finally underway.

Walhalla to HothamI found the first section of the walk to Mt Hotham to be the hardest, with nearly half of the total metres ascended and descended concentrated into what represented only about a third of the AAWT's total distance. I went up the mountains quicker than I came down. My fitness was more than sufficient to make a slow but steady ascent no matter how big the climb, but more often than not by the time I reached the bottom of a mountain my knees would be shaking from the effort of staying upright on the long, steep and slippery slopes. I particularly remember the descents to the Thomson and Jordan Rivers as among the more difficult and I was often reduced to walking off track in the bush where the footing was a little more stable, but even there stepping down sideways to improve my grip on the ground. Water was also a challenge, relatively scarce compared to earlier trips, and we found ourselves making some quite long and sometimes challenging side trips to find it, as well as carrying the not so insignificant extra weight of additional water when we were planning a dry camp.

The track lived up to its reputation and gave us our fair share of excitement. In particular, I have vivid memories of the windstorm we

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experienced while camped beside Black River, on the sixth night of our walk. The campsite was really only just big enough for our two tents, with a huge fallen tree forming a slippery bridge over the river nearby. Many more burnt and very dead trees decorated the steep slopes on each side of the narrow river valley. At about 11.30 pm I went from sleeping to sitting bolt upright with my eyes wide open as I listened to the sound of a wind gust travelling up the valley that sounded very much like a freight train. This was followed by an equally strong and loud wind gust which I quickly realised was coming from the opposite direction, up the valley. Leaves and sticks rained down on my tent from the canopy above as the wind gusts arrived and almost immediately came the unmistakable and utterly terrifying sound of one of the dead giant trees falling down nearby. I was out of my tent in a flash, grabbing my waterproofs as I went. I quickly removed my tent’s only pole from the sleeve, leaving the tent flattened to try to protect it from the missile-like debris flying through the air around me. John and I sought out the only available if not all that sturdy shelter between the rotting trunks of two large fallen trees as the wind gusts continued to roar overhead and more trees continued to fall. We distracted ourselves over the next three or so hours from what was quite possibly going to be our imminent demise by using the

end of one of my walking poles to relocate away from us the large and sometimes hairy insects that were sharing our shelter. This storm was easily the most frightening situation I have ever been on any of my bushwalks, wild dog encounters included.

Highs and lowsAny lows of the walk were easily matched if not outweighed by the highs, and I’m not only talking about the ascents and descents that the mountainous terrain presented to us. Walking over Mt Howitt and the Crosscut Saw to Mt Speculation was simply spectacular and will remain in my mind as somewhere I must revisit. Eating dinner while we watched the mist swirl into the valleys below us just as the sun was going down at High Cone camp was another special moment. I had my best laugh of the walk after we startled a sleeping snake in the middle of a track not far from Chesters Yard. It was late in the day and we were walking side by side down a four wheel drive track that had long grass growing in between the tracks. The snake reared up as we walked on each side of it and all of us, including the snake, bolted in different directions. What I

Steel pathway Rams Head Range Kosciuszko National Park, day 31Joanne Bell

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contrast to the bushwalkers we encountered later that day in the Jagungal Wilderness Area who had walked in before the temporary park closure and were oblivious to any potential issues.

Christmas Food DropOut of all our food drops, the one we collected near Kiandra on Christmas Eve was the most exciting, mainly because by then I had forgotten exactly what treats I had included in the drop. Right on top of my resupply when I opened it was a packet of Nestle brand Scorched Almonds which John and I pretty much inhaled while we sorted through the rest of the contents of the drop. That night we camped beside Chance Creek in the middle of Wild Horse Plain, on what amounted to a grassy flat lawn courtesy of the local but not always welcome equine residents. We were treated to an unusually warm and mild night which meant we were able to lie back on the grass under a star-filled sky while we enjoyed our wine and beer made cold from soaking the bottles in the creek along with our assorted sweet and savoury nibbles. I couldn’t have asked for a nicer Christmas Eve.

On Christmas Day we walked through to Ghost Gully. The day’s walking made miserable for me by a significant pain level from an injured toe impacting the inside of the front of my shoe every step, not to mention the incessant biting of the very unsympathetic march flies. I had not expected that we would come across anyone on the trail that day, but we passed another walker heading the other way early on and were equally surprised to arrive at Ghost Gully to find not only another solo walker, but several very friendly horse truck campers with all the accompanying amenities. The campers wasted no time in offering us both cold beers and food, topping off their hospitality by sharing with us an absolutely enormous bowl of toe pain neutralising Christmas trifle. Hippocrates was spot-on when he said “Let food be thy medicine and thy medicine be thy food”. I needed little encouragement to accept a second generous serve of dessert before going to bed feeling oh-so-much happier than I had earlier in the day.

Joanne at Carters Hut, day 28John Drysdale

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