As i left the Mt Cope Track carpark, i picked up three (Polish i think) bushwalkers, who were about 100m behind me on my return walk, and gave them a lift to Langfords Cap where they were camping. After dropping them off I followed the road around to Rocky Valley Dam and then to the aptly named Pretty Valley Dam (which is quite full), where i thought about camping for the night but decided not to, before driving up to the top of Mt McKay.

Having just been on top of Mt Cope looking back at Mt McKay (and its huge communications tower), and now being on top of Mt McKay, you get a really good perspective on the distances involved up here and your bearings in general. Being closer to the main ridge line you also get excellent views over to Mt Feathertop as well.

I left Mt McKay, drove through the Falls Creek ski village and headed down the mountain towards the town of Mt Beauty. As i drove over the East Kiewa River Bridge i noticed that the river was flowing like mad so i pulled over to grab a few photos. WOW…it looked like a paddling paradise if you were into extremely fast flowing water. Continued driving straight past Mt Beauty, over Tawonga Gap, through Harrietville and up to Mt Hotham.

After the long drive up the ill it was time for dinner, so i pulled into The General at Ht Hotham and grabbed a pizza and few beers before driving over to JB Plain to check out the camping conditions. JB Plain is a walk in camp site about 100m of the road and it looked like it was about to rain so i gave it a miss and headed back to check out the Mt Lock carpark. I’ve spent a night in the car at the Mt Loch carpark before but i thought i’d check it out first…there were about 8 cars in the carpark (probably from people spending the night up near the summit of Mt Loch) so it looked OK.

I decided to celebrate the coming of the new year by having a few more beers at The General and then catching some sleep in DSCVRY before heading out early to tackle Mt Feathertop.

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Back at the Bogong High Plains Riad and DSCVRY after a much quicker walk back from Mt Cope (about 40 minutes). I generally find that the walk in is when i take more photos so it always takes longer than the walk out if its on the same track :)

After just over 50 minutes of walking through an amazing assortment of flowering alpine plants, including Billy Buttons (Craspedia aurantica), Snow Daisy (Brachycome nivalis), Grass triggerplant (Stylidium graminifolium) and many others, and after bending under all of the branches from the Snow Gums (Eucalyptus pauciflora), I finally reached the top of Mt Cope at 1,837m, stood on top of the cairn and took photos in all directions.

The views are amazing and take in Mt Hotham, Mt Feathertop, Mt McKay, the Niggerhead, Mt Bogong and the whole Bogong Massif and many others. Some clouds are starting to roll in over the eastern side of the Bogong High Plains and they are looking pretty dark and nasty so i might start heading back to the car.

Note: The Mt Cope Track is actually part of the 665km long Australian Alps Walking Track.

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Standing next to DSCVRY on the Bogong High Plains Road at the start of the Mt Cope Track at 1,711m…time to walk up to 1,837m and bag Mt Cope :)

Just had a nice cold and refreshing light beer at the Blue Duck Inn, which is a classic old mountian pub, and i’m heading out towards the turn-off onto the Bogong High Plains.

The Great Alpine Road from Mt Hotham to Omeo was a good drive, and no matter how times I go passed Cobungra Station I’m always amazed by how stuning a property it is. After I arrived in Omeo, and picked up some snacks from the store, i headed straight for the Octagon Bookshop to see what new stock might have arrived since my list visit.

The Octagon Bookshop is probably the best stocked book shop with material on the High Country that i have ever been into, and I usually pick up a few things whenever i visit it though this time i walked away empty handed as on my last trip here (March 2007) i picked up quite few books and nothing new grabbed my attention. But thats OK…its just another reason to visit the area again…and again…and again ;)

I’ve just driven past the Diamantina hut and I’ve grabbed my first view of Mt Feathertop of the trip :)

As always, the trip across the Dargo High Plains was a great drive and i did a few quick side trips to places i haven’t seen in years.

First up i turned off the road near Mt Ewan and headed down a track to grab some photos of the three Treasures Mt Ewan Huts. Further up the road it was time to get another hut photo and this time i parked the Land Rover and walked into the site of the Lankey Plain Hut. In the last fire season we lost a lot of the old cattlemans huts that once covered the Victorian mountains so i am trying to grab as many photos of the remaining ones as i can. For more info on huts in the alpine regions of Australia visit the Kosciusko Huts Association and the Victorian High Country Huts Association.

After walking back to DSCVRY i drove along and turned off onto the Blue Rag Range Track. I’ve always wanted to drive this track up to the Blue Rag Trig point at 1,721m, as from a distance it looks like you would get an amazing view from up there. It’s definately a 4WD track and about 2km into it i came across two 4wd vehicles coming the other way. After they had pulled over they told me that the track up ahead was in really bad condition and one of them had actually damaged his suspension on it. As the purpose of this trip is to reach the peak of Mt Feathertop, i decided that the Blue Rag Trig point and its view would have to wait for another expedition.

After reaching the intersection with the Great Apine Road at Mt Saint Bernard, a heap of bicyles appeared on the road as there was either a big alpine hill climb event on or a training event for the Alpine Audax or the Bright Boot Camp both on at the end of January. The amount of cars parked near Diamantina Hut is also pretty good indication that a lot of people are probably spending the night on the track to Mt Feathertop.

I’m going to head straight through the Mt Hotham ski village and over to Omeo and Anglers Rest as i wouldn’t mind reaching the Blue Duck Inn for a nice cold ale before heading up onto the Bogong High Plains :)

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Just bagged Mt Grant at 1,211m.

The drive up from Talbotville has some great views, and once i bagged Mt Grant, i drove down into the old township site of Grant itself.

Grant was another of those huge gold rush era townships which now have nothing left…not even one building, which is really quite sad when you consider it was a part of Australian history and now its all gone :(

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Strange night…first it was quite hot and then it really chilled down making it hard to get some sleep in the swag. It had its good points though..because it was so hot early on i opened the swag right up and got to check out the amazing stars that covered the whole sky….spectacular :)

The cicadas eventually went to sleep and in the morning, when i woke up at 0600hrs, the sound of the Crooked River flowing in the background along with the bird noise made for a nice alarm clock :)

DSCVRY is all packed and its time to head back up McMillans Road to the Dargo High Plains after i take a few photos around the campground, river and old cemetery.

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Decided to drive down and find a spot to camp at the old mining township site of Grant but ended up continueing on to Talbotville.

I have never been down to Talbotville, an old gold mining town site (from the Victorian gold rush period) which once had a population of over 2,000 people in the late 1800′s and the early 1900′s but now contains nothing but a huge grassed area with a few fruit trees, so i was pretty amazed after the 30 minute steep drive down the mountain side from Grant to find about 20 groups set up and camping at various points on the banks of the Crooked River which flows along the side of the huge clearing. The Crooked River is actually pretty full and flowing quite heavily due to recent rainfall and its looking really good.

With the 20 groups camping i was amazed how quiet everyone was and there is a distinct lack of partying going on that you normally find in these situations. I’ve just had dinner (2040 hrs) and now I’m just sitting back on my swag having a cup of tea (always taste better when the water is boiled in a billy) and am doing some map reading preparing for tomorrow on the Dargo High Plains.

The temperature is reading around 24 degrees celsius so i’m going to try and catch an early night so i can get an early start in the morning…that’s if the cicadas decide to quieten down a bit :)

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