A good source of support

A forum for discussing the Australian Alps Walking Track. This is a 655 km long track from Walhalla (Vic) to Tharwa (ACT)

A good source of support

Postby Stroller » Tue 02 Aug, 2016 2:09 pm

I just had a lovely phone call from the woman who is now working on the help desk at the Namadgi Visitor's Centre. She phoned me in response to an email i sent some time ago and she told me she'd only just taken over the job.

Anyway she was so helpful as she's only recently done the walk (feb-March). As she was on the phone, i took the opportunity to run a number of points by her. Now I'm even more excited by this walk and less worried about the more concerning aspects. Not that I was particularly worried, now just less so. The sole remaining issue for me is the cost of food drop delivery.

Her name is Michelle. And the phone number she gave me is 02 6207 2900. Note the Date today 2. August 2016.

Note I'm also considering the wisdom of not collecting my food containers so that someone else can use them after me. contact me if interested. I'll raise it in the other thread on parcel drops too with my email address.
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Re: A good source of support

Postby scoha » Wed 03 Aug, 2016 8:08 pm

Stroller

Michelle is good value - she helped me at the start of my trip last November - I knew she was planning the trip herself so good to hear she pulled it off. Not bad when you can leave the office and in 5mins you're on the AAWT!

Re food containers - I think you need to plan to collect them - food containers without food in them are just rubbish. Theyre only useful if you bring them out and then gift them to other AAWTers.

You will also most likely want to place your own rubbish from previous section in these containers and all of this needs to be brought back.

There are good opportunities however to use this forum to coordinate the sharing of retrieval - worked for me.

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Re: A good source of support

Postby Stroller » Thu 04 Aug, 2016 2:26 am

It would cost me hundreds of dollars more just to collect them. I can't justify this. Its bad enough that its going to cost me hundreds of dollars to put the food parcels in place to begin with.

I'm not suggesting leaving our bins there to pile up is the right answer but I suggest coodinating with other hikers to optimise the process is a much better idea. If everyone wants to keep their wretched buckets to themselves well so be it.

I suspect what actually happens is that when people stumble upon an empty food bucket, people remove them. This would seem to be a good thing to do.

Maybe an idea would be to have a thread where people could post the GPS positions of their empty bins and buckets so that when someone is going by they could be collected and removed unless someone wanted theirs left in place. How the page was managed and formatted would have to be considered though.
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Re: A good source of support

Postby oyster_07 » Thu 04 Aug, 2016 7:21 am

Stroller wrote:It would cost me hundreds of dollars more just to collect them. I can't justify this. Its bad enough that its going to cost me hundreds of dollars to put the food parcels in place to begin with.

I'm not suggesting leaving our bins there to pile up is the right answer but I suggest coodinating with other hikers to optimise the process is a much better idea. If everyone wants to keep their wretched buckets to themselves well so be it.


If you put it there, you are responsible for its removal. If the cost of removal is prohibitive, the cost is also prohibitive regarding placement. Coordinate with others if you can, but the ultimate responsibility is your's and your's alone. To leave an empty cache in location is environmentally and morally the same as driving past and throwing it out the window without a care in the world.
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Re: A good source of support

Postby MickyB » Thu 04 Aug, 2016 7:26 am

Stroller wrote:I suspect what actually happens is that when people stumble upon an empty food bucket, people remove them. This would seem to be a good thing

Not if the owner had plans in place for them to be removed.

Stroller wrote:Maybe an idea would be to have a thread where people could post the GPS positions of their empty bins and buckets so that when someone is going by they could be collected and removed unless someone wanted theirs left in place. How the page was managed and formatted would have to be considered though.


AAWT food drops, placing and collecting viewtopic.php?f=64&t=23783

This thread is for people who want to find other people who are putting in or retrieving food drops on the AAWT

If you want an empty food drop collected, you should state:
* The general location;
* What it looks like; and
* What to do with the container.

It's suggested that the detailed specifics of the food drops not be posted here. While unlikely, the forces of darkness may go to your food and eat it. This has happened. Contact with the other person should be by private message or email.
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Re: A good source of support

Postby Lophophaps » Thu 04 Aug, 2016 8:21 am

Stroller wrote:I just had a lovely phone call from the woman who is now working on the help desk at the Namadgi Visitor's Centre. She phoned me in response to an email i sent some time ago and she told me she'd only just taken over the job.

Anyway she was so helpful as she's only recently done the walk (feb-March). As she was on the phone, i took the opportunity to run a number of points by her. Now I'm even more excited by this walk and less worried about the more concerning aspects. Not that I was particularly worried, now just less so. The sole remaining issue for me is the cost of food drop delivery.

Her name is Michelle.


Michelle was most helpful to me, as was a colleague, Jess.
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Re: A good source of support

Postby GBW » Thu 04 Aug, 2016 12:18 pm

Didn't seek any help from Namadgi other than to take a pic of us as we left but did meet Michelle and her walking partner at Mackays hut as we headed south. I think she skipped a few of the best bits and had frequent support from her dad but all the same did a great job in completing the walk. Here she is...

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Michelle at Mackays Hut
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Re: A good source of support

Postby Stroller » Fri 05 Aug, 2016 9:22 pm

"Didn't seek any help from Namadgi other than to take a pic of us as we left but did meet Michelle and her walking partner at Mackays hut as we headed south. I think she skipped a few of the best bits and had frequent support from her dad but all the same did a great job in completing the walk. Here she is..."

She didn't mention skipped bits to me. Is that what she told you? Did she say why and which bits? I didn't get any indication from her that any of it was beyond her and caused her serious problems. In fact, she made it sound easier than just about everyone else here and i think that could be because the signage has been improved and other work having been done on the track. She said she wants to go back and do it again more slowly.
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Re: A good source of support

Postby GBW » Thu 18 Aug, 2016 10:38 am

Stoller, I'm sure they didn't do the Main Range and remember asking how they went on the Mt Macdonald to Viking section in Victoria. Michelle's walking partner whose name I've forgotten said they skipped some sections or took an alt route through there. I can't remember the specifics. Don't rely too much on the signage to guide you...some sections have no markers and would be unclear without a map. Most of NSW/ACT is OK but parts of Vic can be harder to navigate.
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Re: A good source of support

Postby Stroller » Sat 20 Aug, 2016 6:51 pm

Can you remind when you did the walk last GBW. Michelle said they had done a lot of work on the track and navigation really wasn't difficult at all. The woman who walked with her apparently was blown away by the improvements in the track from the previous time she'd done it. Mainly on the Victorian side she said. Of course track conditiosn probably change each year and at different times of year but the signage has been improved a lot she said and that should still be there when i need it i would think.

Anyway because of your comment, i phoned her up to day to quizz her about the possiblity of missing bits of the track because I was concerned that I might have got a false impression of things if there were significant sections she missed. I would explain that i am hoping her views are correct and I'm taking account of them because she did the track only this year whereas others talking up the difficulties might have done it years ago when track conditions were worse than now.

So i phoned her and she told me the bit she missed was about km 165 in the book on page 81. She missed about three or four day section because she had hip injury resulting from or being made worse by her pack and something to do with worries about water. I think it might have had to do with the necessity of having to carry more water than usual becuase they weren't sure about what resources there would be and this extra weight would exacerbate her hip injury. Actually i didn't note the details of these two things because i thought they'd be less specific to my case. But she could affirm that she did walk through the Main Range area.

So that's the only bit of the track they missed.
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Re: A good source of support

Postby scoha » Sat 20 Aug, 2016 9:37 pm

That will be the bit from Mac Springs to Hotham I imagine - some of the speckkiest bits of the trail IMHO unfortunately. Its over the Xcut Saw, Speculation, Viking and the "dry" Barries. Its the only place I had rain as it turned out when i went through in November. Theres water in the tanks and at Speculation.
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Re: A good source of support

Postby Lophophaps » Sat 20 Aug, 2016 10:17 pm

Stroller, it's pretty much a bushwalking four lane highway from MacDonald north to west of The Razor. Care is needed here, and good tracks mostly to Viking Saddle. Going up to the chute on The Viking may be a bit suss, but once there it's fine until the last gully on the other side. The track peters out to some extent and can be hard to follow for a short distance. Then it's progessively better until the bottom of the descent at about 773928, when the highway resumes for at least another 100 kilometres.

In fine weather the Main Range is easy and well worth it. Care is needed past Twynum in places, but it's mainly tracked. Bag Tate, then down the ridge to Consett Stephen Pass, and north over lovely walking country to Dicky Cooper Bogong. Down east and up to Gungartan, then north to Mawsons Hut. No tracks and no problems in fine weather, better than the road to Valentines.
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Re: A good source of support

Postby GBW » Sun 21 Aug, 2016 12:10 am

Stroller, we walked Baw Baw to Mac Springs in Jan 2015 and Tharwa to Thredbo in Feb/March 2016 with as many side trips and huts as I could squeeze in. I remember asking about the Rolling Ground section and I thought she said they took the route along the road to Whites River Hut. Maybe I misunderstood them at the time but that's what I recall. When we did the Vic section the weather made things a challenge especially 1st time through, lots of rain, wind and fog through High Cone/Square Top/Mt Clear section but if you're an experienced walker you may not find it that difficult. I'm hoping to do Hotham to Thredbo this summer so might see you out there. Good luck.
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Re: A good source of support

Postby Stroller » Sun 21 Aug, 2016 12:19 am

scoha wrote:That will be the bit from Mac Springs to Hotham I imagine - some of the speckkiest bits of the trail IMHO unfortunately. Its over the Xcut Saw, Speculation, Viking and the "dry" Barries. Its the only place I had rain as it turned out when i went through in November. Theres water in the tanks and at Speculation.


What does speckiest or specky mean pray tell?

Re the water. Yes she said they were not sure about the quality or quantity of the water in the tanks and so they couldn't rely on there being water.

You're a bit ahead of me on the detail lopho. But i'm sure when the time comes i'll appreciate that you given all that detail now.
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Re: A good source of support

Postby north-north-west » Sun 21 Aug, 2016 7:10 pm

Stroller wrote:
scoha wrote:That will be the bit from Mac Springs to Hotham I imagine - some of the speckkiest bits of the trail IMHO unfortunately. Its over the Xcut Saw, Speculation, Viking and the "dry" Barries. Its the only place I had rain as it turned out when i went through in November. Theres water in the tanks and at Speculation.


What does speckiest or specky mean pray tell?

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MacDonald to Speculation is superb country, especially the Crosscut.
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Re: A good source of support

Postby Stroller » Sun 21 Aug, 2016 9:16 pm

Got it thanks NNW
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