Aus Alpine Walking Track: Jameson-Licola to Walhalla - 105km

AAWT - Jameson-Licola to Walhalla - 105km


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Day 1: Wednesday 23rd March 2022

AAWT Track/Jameson-Licola road intersection to Black river.

After a few false starts due to the NSW and Qld storms pushing south over the Victoria Alpine regions, we finally set off to complete the southern section of the Great Alpine Walk from where we previously left off - The Jameson-Licola road.

A big thanks to Tristan for dropping us out on the trail head at the Jameson-Licola road after convoying from Melbourne to leave my car at Walhalla - our finishing point.

We started hiking around 2:30pm wednesday afternoon after saying bye to Tristan who returned to Melbourne.

2.5 hours later we arrived at Black River and found the campsite leach and mosquito infested. The campsite itself was a small landing that could barely fit 2 or 3 tents and on uneven ground.

I had 2 leaches cling to me when filling up with water along with bleeding scratches from the thick blackberry bushes riverside.

One of the leaches had punched a hole in my leg & was already sucking away at my blood filling up like a mini balloon, the second was about to eat into my hand before i sent it hurtling through the air with a flick along with some angry expletives along the lines of F'ing this and F' that - before attending to the first leach with a cigarette lighter, burning the bastard off and lighting half my localised leg hairs on fire at the same time.

We still had 2 hours of light left and we mutually decided not to camp in the leach infested jungle down low and instead climb the 600 meters up to the top of the ridge line carrying as much water as we could.

Very, very steep going but we ascended quickly despite all the extra water weight we were carrying. Summitting the top we realised we made the right decision as we had a much nicer camp. We arrived within the last 15 minutes of daylight.

Christian immediately dropped his pack and made a nice campfire, while i brewed some hot water for food. We then sat around the campfire eating and chatting about life and immersed ourselves in the stars as it was a brilliant clear night.

The Milky way, Saucepan (Orions Belt) and the Southern Cross all visible as well as a shooting star, many satellites and 2 unidentified high altitutude space craft that looked like satelites, but werent moving like satelites and were flashing.

Our 6km day turned into 12.8km with the steep climb up from Black River.


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Day 2: Thursday 24th March 2022

Champion Spur Jeep track to Thomson River Campsite.

Notes: We basically hiked an entire map from Champion Spur to the Thomson River. Very, very steep and tough going up Casper Track. Basically toe climbing it was so steep. The burn through the calves, quads, hamstrings and glutes was as real as it gets as we toe poked our way up the the steep mountain side one-step-at-a-time!

It was slow going, even as we summited over Mount Easton and made our way down the ridgeline towards Thomson River.

Exhaustion toyed with our minds as we ascended then descended numerous valleys. We really were battling a rollercoaster of emotions at times and questioning the sanity of our decision to do near back-to-back marathon distances 3 days in a row with fully laden packs & over 4000m of elevation, but we both pushed on.

We made it to Thomson River campsite within 30 minutes of darkness but again found it to be rough ground, leach and mosquito infested.

Tired and a little delirious i abstained from any decision making and left it up to Christian as to whether we camp or push on. In my mind, I didnt want to camp there but i also didnt want to take another step.

Christian agreed the designated camp was rubbish and decided it was best to push on a few more clicks up river to where we thought a better camp might be located based on the maps.

Unable to find any flat grassy riverside ground, We ended up camping on gravel stones and had a rough nights sleep about 3km further up the river. Christian in particular had an unpleasant sleep after pitching his tent in the dark over the top of some old metal mining relics half buried in the ground.

The positive was we had plenty of water from Thomson river though. We cooked food and set our tents up after dark before collapsing into our sleeping bags.

Despite being mentally and physically exhausted i couldnt sleep. Awake until midnight and awake again at 4:30am - i estimate a maximum of 4.5 hours sleep.

Big day - 37km, a lot of Vertical ascent - 1,200 meters

Total = 49km and 2,156m in vertical ascent in 10 hours of moving time.



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Day 3: Friday 25th March 2022

Waking up at 6am, we had an early morning start at the crack of dawn.

Heading straight up the Trigg Point track with a 700m climb to Stronachs camp.

Both of us very sore and tired. Our feet were now covered with blisters. Very steep going in parts. Again toe climbing to get up the sections of the rocky track that were too steep to place the heel down. The calve and lower leg burn was in full swing as it was the previous day on the steep, rocky Casper Track.

It was nice to finally enter the Baw Baw national park and soak in some high altitude views just after midday after the steep and never-ending mountain ascent.

From Stronachs camp we made a faster pace across the Baw Baw national park, stopping for lunch at Mount Whitelaw hut site. Found some nice water in a small mountain stream running through a gully nearby to the north-east and cooked hot meals.

Had a nice chat to two other hikers who were going to camp there the night.

We decided we wanted to try and make it across the entire national park that day and if possible to Erica Car Park. Our pace slowed late afternoon as we battled the ups and downs near Mount Talbot and we started qurstioning how far we can realistically get as we were both now utterly exhausted.

Christian hurt his knee and I also fell banging and bleeding my left knee on a small boulder i tried to step over.

We finally made it to Erica Car park right on sundown with minutes of light left.

We had a picnic table to cook, clean and sit and eat at. We joked it was our 5 star luxury hotel after days of squatting in dirt and sitting on rocks to cook and eat.

After 3 days of bush time, i wanted to clean myself. It was after dark and under torch light i went and lay naked in the nearby creek which was about 20cm depth and washed myself the best i could as it wasnt overly deep to fully submerge my body.

It was absolutely freezing alpine water but it was refreshing. Walking bare feet over the rocks in the freezing cold water felt like a massage to my otherwise swollen, bruised and blistered feet!

I didnt notice at the time but a leach attached itself to me, possibly when i put my thermals back on after exiting the freezing creek as the surrounding ground was muddy and damp.

About 1.5 hours later after cooking dinner under torch light at our 5 star hotel picnic table i hopped into my sleeping bag and noticed wetness. What felt like a giant slug was on my chest. I immediately flicked it off to the corner of my tent while yelling for help from Christian camping meters away in his own tent.

Quickly finding a torch and using light from my phone i saw a lot of blood. The leach from the creek had punched a nice hole in my chest and was now one of the biggest leaches ive ever seen in all my days of hiking.

It looked like i had been shot with a big dark hole oozing blood down my stomach in three directions. Too tired to really care, I photographed it then flicked the leach outside, checked my body for more and collapsed back into sleeping bag exhausted yelling out across the campsite at Christian that I hated life and needed a hug.

Big day: 37.5km covered with 1,734m of vertical climbing.

Total = 86.73km with 3890 meters of vertical gain.

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Day 4: Saturday 26th March 2022

Another early start. Both christian and I eager to get back to the car. Both very sore and leach and mosquito mauled.

We packed up before first light and headed down towards O'Sheas Mill site/Tyers River dreaming of hot wood-fired pizza that we were now only hours away from obtaining

A road bash for the first few clicks was easy going and we ditched a lot of water to lighten our packs which was nice after full days hiking and climbing with 5+ litres of water each weighing us heavily down.

The last few clicks to OSheas mill site was slow going down a ridgeline that was overgrown. The lower altitude ferns and lush rainforest was a nice mix to the alpine hiking we had done though. We quickly lost height as we descended into the valley to Tyers River.

From Tyers River we made quick ground towards Walhalla via a high trail running parrallel to the river. The bridge and official AAWT track was closed as Parks Vic decided the bridge was unsafe. We instead popped out on the Walhalla road a little further down.

We dropped our packs and Christian was able to secure a lift from a friendly 4wd enthusiast nearby who drove me back to my car (3.8km) away on the Walhalla road.

I came back to Christian, collected our packs and we jumped in the nearby Thomson River to clean ourselves and bathe our wounds.


Total hiking Stats:

104km (more than planned)
4,127m of vertical gain
5,105m of height lost
4.9km average moving speed
21.2 hours moving time
68 hours total time
35km average distance per day