by paidal_chalne_vala » Mon 09 Mar, 2015 9:51 pm
I just got back from Mac. Springs on The March 2015 Labour day weekend.The weather was rather good indeed.Mac Springs were flowing but very slowly. There is a rainwater tank and a tap behind the loo with a view now. We made it from Mac. Springs to Mt Buggery and back in a day.
Mt Buggery was so full of lunch time walkers eating and resting , it didn't feel that remote. It was crawling with humans, like an ant hill that had been knocked over :-0.
The Mt Howitt car park was overflowing !At Mac. Springs People were lighting camp fires everywhere. It is a fuel stove only area.There was hardly a spare tent space anywhere in the camp grounds or on either approach tracks etc. Oh the horror........ I think the Mt. Howitt Carpark should be moved about 15 km further away from the Gantner hut!. It was like the Prom during peak season :-0
There were so many four Wheel drive hoons up there driving way too fast on the Howitt road. The Howitt road is very , very dusty and barely OK for 2 WD cars in some very rough sections at the moment.
It has been graded with a grader during the summer or so the ranger told me at Platypus camp site number 14 and it seems the monster off road 4WD bogans have hacked it up again. On the way home Seeing some of the 4WD crowd at Licola, they are much fatter and more bogan like. Us trekkers are slimmer, walk more up right , and will outlive them all I think.
Somebody had smashed the Bennison look out sign with their monster Tonka toy truck! . The Ranger had the remains in her vehicle . I had a good chat with her and let her know what else should be done at Mac. Springs to get people to stop stripping the place of firewood, making bonfires that are leaving charcoal scars everywhere, washing dishes in the springs themselves , leaving litter incl. whisky bottles etc. leaving the hut in a mess, using all the firewood inside the hut and then not replacing it , etc. I shall file these matter with my VNPA trip report too . I am with those camped at Stanley Name spur track junction on the Cross cut saw and the people who camped on the top ledge of the Howitt spur track just before the summit west , and just came into Mac. Springs for water. They had the best campsites and plenty of serenity .They had the right idea.