BushwalkBushwalk
Buddong FallsAll pictures by Sean Smith
The Hume & Hovell Walking Track (HHWT) is in New South Wales, stretching from Yass near Canberra to Albury on the Murray River. It is over 430 kilometres long and is often derided. Comments made to me in person before the walk included "road walk" and "not worth the effort". Well I say to hell with that.
Hume & Hovell Walking Track
Sean Smith
24 | BWA April 2019
True, there is a fair amount of road walking and meandering through pine plantations. But I reckon it's absolutely worth the effort and remains one of Australia's least walked long trails, possibly because the soft resupply options and lack of swanky huts for hikers that are becoming prevalent elsewhere.
I saw more fauna, both native and feral, than I can remember ever encountering on an Australian trail, some spectacular eucalyptus forests and the resupply trail towns of Tumut and Tumbarumba were highlights with friendly helpful locals and good services. So there!
12-26 October 2018The HHWT loosely follows the direction and some of the landmarks of the legendary 1824 expedition of nearly 200 years ago by a bunch of hardcore colonial explorers led by Hamilton Hume and William Hovell.
Their discoveries and encounters with Aboriginal peoples opened up the area to settlement and industry.
These days the landscape is mostly very different from the rich, verdant forests the early Europeans passed through but it's still a buzz mooching along a similar route over 430 kilometres and catching random reminders of that expedition and the era of uncertain frontiers.
Maps and informationI used the official map pack.
I purchased John and Lyn Daly's Take A Walk in Southern NSW guidebook which features an in-depth description of the trail found on their website.
Safari track ratingMostly easy. All over the show surface-wise but mostly undulating fire trails, lush open farmland and country roads with many good stretches of fun single track and the necessary sections of asphalt road to connect this path together.
There are some sweaty steep climbs and boring clear cut pine plantations that kick one's morale in the guts. But for the most part the signs were great and the variety of landscape and terrain keeps things interesting.
There is definitely a fair bit of effort going into maintaining the trail and by far the best kept section was the stretch between Buddong
East from near Horse Creek campsite
“ ... the variety of landscape and terrain keeps things interesting.
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Crossing private farmland near Bowna
Falls and Henry Angel where the Hume & Hovell 100 mile Ultramarathon is held annually. My original intent was to go over and run the event but then I decided that for the effort required to travel there I should hike the whole kaboodle.
It's a shame about the chronic blackberry infestation constantly sighted in the valleys and creeks but that's the way it is.
Logistics and suppliesI flew from Tasmania to Sydney and took the early train to Yass Junction (around 3.5 hours) where I was dropped off in Yass four kilometres away by two lovely ladies. I located the Yass Camping Store and procured a gas canister for my cooker.
I decided against starting the hike at the traditional eastern terminus; Cooma Cottage about five kilometres away. The notion of 10 kilometres return road bash on a busy highway for the sake of tagging a sign didn't rev my engine so I started in Yass. However, many end to end hikers start at Cooma Cottage where explorer Hamilton Hume lived from 1840. Your call, be a purist or start where you want.
I carried five day's food on the plane from Launceston to get me to Tumut, I purchased four day's food in Tumut to get me to Tumbarumba. and I purchased six day's food in Tumbarumba to get me to Albury.
Tumut is a large country town with a number of hotels and major supermarkets and the Riverglade Caravan Park where I pitched my tent, $20 a night, great facilities. I grabbed another gas canister at Toms Outdoors and chatted with Chris, one of the owners, cool shop, cool people. I also buy a bit of stuff online from their website.
I accessed Tumut by calling the Tumut Taxi Service 02 6947 1666 from the Snowy Mountains Highway. It's ten kilometres north
Burrinjuck Waters State Park ferry
“ ... start at Cooma Cottage where explorer Hamilton Hume lived from 1840.
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of where the HHWT pops out and costs around $30. Alternately you could stick your thumb out or walk. A kind local who shall remain nameless shuttled me out of town the next morning back to the trailhead. Thanks mate!
I stayed at the Tumbarumba Creek Caravan Park in a Jagungal Cabin for $93. It was a good stay and the laundry facilities were welcome. Supplies can be sourced from the large IGA supermarket on the main street. I had lunch at one of the pubs - $10 for fish & chips, $6 for a pint of tasty IPA. Old school prices circa 2008.
I accessed Tumbarumba (or "Tumby" as the locals call it) by calling Ria at the caravan park for a pickup. I initially tried hitching but gave up due to lack of traffic.
Town was calling ...
Ria's husband Peter facilitated my return to the Henry Angel Trackhead the next morning, I paid them $20 for two rides.
The Great Aussie Holiday Park at Albury is well set up with grassy tent sites. I paid $25 for a campsite and bought some lamb rissoles from the basic shop.
Make sure you fill up your water bottle before heading off. I forgot and hiked 23 very warm kilometres to the Ettamogah Pub.
The Great Aussie kindly held a package I sent containing non-hiking clothing, snacks and a book.
The Ettamogah Pub is a fantastic place to smash some beers, get a good feed and charge up the phone. Kitsch and touristy but very useful. Only a couple of kilometres from the Table Top Reserve.
Across the damThe HHWT leaves dry land for a six kilometre section between Burrinjuck Waters Holiday Park and Cathedral Rock. The Holiday Park operates a boat transfer and Wendy and Dean are friendly, helpful folks.
Campsite at The Flats on Blowering Reservoir
Ben Smith Campsite
“ A kind local ... shuttled me out of town the next morning back to the trailhead.
28 | BWA April 2019
The boat ride cost me $30 and I was scooted across immediately even though I rocked up a day early and was booked to travel the following day.
Daily distances
Date
Itinerary
Km
12
Yass to Captain Campsite
28
13
The ridge above Wee Jasper (campsite)
31
14
Micalong Swamp campsite
36.5
15
Tumut (Riverglade Caravan Park campsite)
42
16
The Flats campsite
30
17
Buddong Creek Picnic Area
35
18
Junction campsite
38
19
Henry Angel campsite (pick up and cabin in Tumbarumba Creek Caravan Park)
6.5
20
Henry Angel Trackhead to Mannus campsite
22
21
Horse Creek campsite
20
22
Woomargama National Park campsite
28
23
Samuel Bollard campsite
34
24
Great Aussie Resort campsite
25
25
Table Top Reserve campsite
25
26
Albury (Best Western Hotel)
26.5
Total
427.5
*I estimated my daily distance from the maps. I'm not too fussed as what I actually did, these figures just give you an idea of my impromptu itinerary.
What I wore & carriedThe weather was mid-20s at this time of year so I rolled along in shorts and shirt mostly. I wore Bedrock sandals on the flat easy firetrails and Topo MT2 trail runners on the bumpy parts. I used a three season quilt and merino leggings and long sleeve top during the night when things got cold but mostly it was fairly warm. My 60 litre Gossamer Gear Mariposa pack was more than ample.
Best parts
Finding no ticks on me the entire time.
Buddong Falls. Quite sensational.
The crazy diversity of landscapes the trail meanders through.
Going for four days at a stretch without seeing and speaking to another human being.
Sitting out a heavy thunderstorm on The Flats alongside Blowering Lake.
Electric skies and that slightly rattled but invigorated feeling.
The campsitesEvery 10 to 20 kilometres there are purpose-built covered picnic shelters with tables, sometimes a water tank (if not then there is a creek or lake nearby) and a flat area to camp.
There is always a nearby road, in fact some are right on sealed roads. One I stayed at, Mannus; was a tad rundown and painfully close to the road. However I slept 13 hours straight through and didn't hear a peep.
I mostly walked in sandals and used lightweight trekking poles.
“ The crazy diversity of landscapes the trail meanders through.
BWA April 2019 | 29
Murray River at Mungabareena Reserve near Albury
No one ever disturbed me and I only encountered kangaroos, brumbies and fantastic birdlife.
Things I would do differentlyWater filterI took a rubbish little Sawyer Mini. This was woefully inadequate, I should have packed a Sawyer Squeeze instead. The bag ripped first, so I hooked it up to a large Platypus then the filter got very clogged and I hadn't chucked in the back wash syringe when I packed up my kit in Launceston because ... well it's bulky and I rarely use it. And I'm a nuff nuff sometimes and I neglect to bring things I probably should but hey, who's perfect?
Good trick: I purchased an overpriced bottle of "sports water", whatever the heck that is, and utilised the sipper top to back-flush the Sawyer Mini when needed with clean filtered water.
This was painstaking as getting clean, filtered water initially from a blocked filter in order to then clean it, required patience and this back-flush method doesn't do a great job, just an adequate one.
The sipper cap on this brand of sports water slips snug over the top of the outlet pipe of the Sawyer Mini and allows water to be flushed back into the filter and push out the junk.
When the squeeze bag hopped the twig I screwed the Mini onto my water bottle and drank straight out of the piping outlet. I prefer to faff around and do things the hard way and stop and squeeze filtered water into the bottle and glug it down as required like a man rather than a child sipping from a straw but I purposely brought along a BPA free bottle with the cap screw thread that I knew would partner with the Mini in case the standard squeeze bag crapped out.
“ There is always a nearby road, in fact some are right on sealed roads.
“ ... utilised the sipper top to back-flush the Sawyer Mini ...
30 | BWA April 2019
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Sean lives in Northern Tasmania and is a tourism professional by happenstance. He is obsessed with hiking the trails of North America and the parts of Australia no one is interested in. And running ultramarathons. And his two black Kelpies.
He writes of his adventures at safarihiker.
Toilet paperHard to believe but I forgot to bring toilet paper. I had a few wet wipes but luckily I don't mind the "back country bidet" method and (fortuitously) all of the campsite outhouses had tissue roll in them.
PenYup, a simple pen that worked would have made signing the sporadic trail registers a tad easier. Instead I had fun and games attempting to write with the flogged out pencil stubs and duct taped broken biros tucked inside the rolled up register forms. I grabbed a decent one in Tumut but probably should have bought a packet and left them in the plastic screw cylinders where the registers were located as well. Anyway.
Done after two weeks of solitude and ready for a shower at the Hovell Tree in Albury.
InformationThe official Hume and Hovell Walking Track website is helpful. It's worth checking their Facebook page for current track condition reports and recent detours.
I found the trail journal entries by Dave Byrnes from his 2013 HHWT really useful.
Sunset at Lake Hume, Great Aussie Resort
“Yup, a simple pen that worked would have made signing ... a tad easier.
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