2019 Hume and Hovell Track
As promised by the weather forecast another day of rain. The morning wasn’t too bad with just the occasional shower but as the day wore on it got heavier and more frequent. Today we walked 21.5 km around Blowering Dam and didn’t quite reach our designated stop point of Yellowin falling short by about 9 km. The rain and on my part a lack of energy have set in. I usually find that I struggle as I start dropping weight and my body fights me on my need for energy … at the moment my body is winning. That will change over the coming days but it just makes things harder. Gill is powering on and helping me through.
We had some great views over Blowering Dam today and for some reason I know most of the other big dams but this one just slipped my mind.
About mid morning we stop for a rest and I check my phone signal and hooray it’s strong enough to post. We spend about 40 minutes on the side of the track playing catch up on social media before heading off. We press on to Browns campsite which is typical of the camps on this track and have an early lunch under shelter.
On we trudge through the mud and the rain and while the dam level is very low, a few good days of rain in this large basin will help raise the dam level. There’s an image on the Hume and Hovell website that I’m pretty sure shows the dam at full height and boy is it different. A highlight for today was when I saw an Emu dad and his chicks – very pleased!
We decide to stop at Windy Point as there is an area to camp as well as a toilet. Pretty basic as far as campsites go and it’s a 500 metre walk to the water.
We set up the tent in one of the rare moments of sunshine but still needed to dry off the tent because we didn’t have a chance this morning. We have an early dinner and are in bed by 6.00pm.
We hear a car enter the camping area and it seems to be driving around in circles before it pulls up outside our tent and then turns off its lights and drives away. We hear a gunshot shortly after and realise that the hunters are out even though it’s not allowed in this area. The rain has finally stopped but we aren’t sure for how long. The rain I don’t mind but it makes the track very muddy.
Tomorrow is planned as a 14 km day so we should be able to make up some distance and time but that will depend on difficulty of the upcoming section. Time for bed.
As promised by the weather forecast another day of rain. The morning wasn’t too bad with just the occasional shower but as the day wore on it got heavier and more frequent. Today we walked 21.5 km around Blowering Dam and didn’t quite reach our designated stop point of Yellowin falling short by about 9 […]