by Reidm08 » Fri 21 Dec, 2018 8:53 am
Hey guys thought I would send through an update on how it went. We got back to Melbourne yesterday after leaving early Tuesday morning. In the end, only one friend joined me, a 29-year-old male, fit but no previous bushwalking experience.
As planned we got to Harrietville around 11.30 and walked up the Bungalow Spur, as expected it was very hot, the day was a slog but didn't present any real difficulties. Got up and set up around 3 and basically collapsed for an hour in the shade. Went up Feathertop that evening and collected more water from the Tom Kneen track on the way down, left a bunch of it at the Razorback junction to pick up and top up accordingly in the morning.
Next day we got an early start to beat the heat, leaving just before 7am. Now I know there was a lot of talk surrounding the Diamantina Spur, and yes it's steep, but entirely manageable for anyone who is reasonably fit and whose knees are still in good knick. We made it to Blair's Hut by about 10.30 and after a bit of a break and cool off to Dibbins by 12.30. Hadn't realised the campsites were by reservation only at Dibbins and with still about 8 hours of daylight left we decided that we would be better off pushing on to Derricks. By this point between the march flies, ants, mosquitoes and various stinging plants my mate had pretty much decided that he had had enough. We got into Derricks by about 4, fairly bushed to be honest after the climb up Swindlers. My mate had well and truly decided hiking was not for him so we decided that tomorrow morning we could walk to Diamantina hut and then I could ditch some non essentials and cruise down the BA spur to pick up the car and go collect him.
Got into Diamantina at around 9.30,I ditched some stuff and headed down the BA spur unencumbered by excess weight and excess personas. What is worth noting is that from this loop, it was easily the most enjoyable walking, the section around washington creek in particular is just beautiful and if I had my time again I would definitely be factoring in a night of camping down there. Anyway I pushed on and back to the Bungalow Spur trail head to pick up the car finishing up around 1.30. By 2.30, I was back up at Diamantina, car loaded and headed back to Melbourne.
A lot of the commentary leading up to this trip seriously had me second guessing a lot of my long held assumptions relating to capabilities, timings, distances etc. Most of what I saw reinforced those original ideas.
The Bon Accord, is certainly not too long a days walking, even with clients I wouldn't budget more than 6 hours for that section, up or down. The Washington creek crossing was a non issue also.
I also don't think you can consider Fed hut to Dibbins hut too large a day, in fact how that could possibly take an entire day is beyond me, nobody could possibly be moving much slower than 2kms an hour on that track even if they spend some extra time going down the spur. That leaves about 8 hours of excess daylight.
If someone was to ask me for advice regarding that particular itinerary at this time of the year the number one thing I would say would be make sure you bring gaiters, I spent the whole time cursing myself for not bringing them, particularly going down BA solo. Snakes are everywhere and parts of the track are quite overgrown.
The second thing I would say is that really the walking between Fed hut and Dibbins via the Diamantina Spur, really isnt overly nice, you would be much better heading down Razorback and down BA camping at Washinton Creek.
Anyway, I appreciate you guys want very much to be the voice of caution, particularly not knowing peoples abilities but having said that I think anyone who admits to some level of bushwalking proficiency is more than capable of doing that original itinerary in 4 days, I would go as far to say that they have no business being on a hiking trail unguided if they aren't capable of doing that itinerary.
Anyway, thanks for all your help. In particular the commentary about the water turned out to be spot on and saved me a lot of headaches.
Cheers,
Reid