Day 3 - BASHED & LOST

We start the day retracing our steps from the error we made the night before, (see article Day 2 - Hills, Views and an Alpine Tiger Snake)  After crossing Black River we started our 2.8km bush bash northward  to a point in dense brush where we are meant to find a cairn which will indicate for us to change to a northeast direction for another 2.8km of bush bashing across a saddle and then up Mt Shillinglaw, Chapman's book says to expect 3-5 hours of bush bashing.

After 3 hours we were frustrated but happy to see a burnt out marker on a tree as well as a couple other signs that other groups had seen this mess we were in as well.  Above the words What Trak were some other descriptive words which I won't relay.

We knew the cairn we were looking for as a direction changer was at the summit of the ridge we were following and my Suunto watch came in handy with constant elevation checks but after another 2 hours we could tell we still had a some elevation to climb and we were desperate to see any new signs of track confirmation.  None came.

We had a bearings some what as we could see Mt Shillinglaw from time to time when the scrub cleared and could also see a logging trail which we believed met up with the Jamieson-licola Rd we expected to be at by now!

Things were not working right for about an hour now, Tim & I took off our packs and got out all the assets we brought with us.  Map, compass, GPS and a couple of prayers!  We had something to eat and drink and assessed that we had now indeed passed our turn off and return in the direction we came from.  Within 10 metres of turning around Tim notices a white drink bottle on the ground, it was mine from when we had walked through there 10 minutes ago!  The forest was not only interrupting our progress it was stealing from me too........

It had been about 20 minutes of bashing when when Tim almost said "lets have another look at the maps" when I yelled out those marvellous words which would dominate our afternoon for the next 2 hours.  PINK PAINT!

Look closely, wasn't easy to spot on the day either

Thank you to whoever had done the trail and marked the scrub with pink paint.  We were like fat kids in the candy shop!  There was laughter and dancing, I think Tim & I almost hugged at one point!  We had the trail....... but 10 metres later....... where did it go.  Tim & I would split up and walk about 15 metres and one of us would yell out "Pink Paint" the other would then bush bash back to the trail and start the process again.  The below images shows how dense the scrub is, top photo of my back from about 3 metres in front of Tim.  I took a small step, 300mm step and this is the result in the picture below, gone!

4:30pm we had made it out of the scrub having left at about 9am from Black river camping ground to McMillan track a massive distance of....... 5km!  This is 1 of 3 sections with this difficulty on the whole Australian Alps Walking Track.  We were happy to see the McMillan marks but we were down to about 500ml of water each and were about 8km from a reliable water source ( as shown on the map) we decided to make it a long day and get to Rumpff saddle as quick as we could, picking up water on the Barkly Jeep Track so we could avoid headaches from dehydration.

When we saw the water some 3 km's down the road, it made it worth the effort.  Fresh, cold, mountain fresh flowing water.  Although we had been filtering the water over the past couple days we didn't even bother with this spot.  The whole time we were filling up and downing some fresh stuff right off the rocks I was thinking of my father.  Along the Appalachian Trail Dad & his brothers used to swoon over the natural water springs pouring out of the mountain face.  Its Dad's favourite brew, ice cold mountain water.  This photo is for you Dad.....soak in that image!

Well 8pm we set up camp after skipping like school girls from the water source to Rumpff saddle.  Tents, then food.  We had rehydrated pasta and veggies and Tim had brought some bags of Tuna to add to the mix...... wow... what a feed.  The perfect meal to reward our days work.  We washed up and hit the tents about 9:30pm.  A belly full of food, well hydrated and the knowledge of knowing we just tackled one of the more difficult sections of the AAWT and conquered.  We slept well.




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