The Weekly Wrap-Up 3
Days 17-27, 205-375km Omeo to Corryong
Ah, Victorian High Country. What a joy you have been! This week was a pretty steady one (and yes, I know it's 10 days, but who's counting?!), and although we didn't cover huge distances, we did get through some pretty steep terrain, probably the roughest of the trip - at least the boys hope so!
Speaking of the boys.... In my last post, we were about to ride out of Omeo with young Mick-Mac in tow, loaded up with all our wordly goods, and boy, was I worried! I mean, there are literally SO MANY THINGS that can go wrong with horses, let alone young green horses on roads. But I shouldn't have worried. Mick-Mac is a total boss horse, stoically keeping up with Mr Richard's ridiculously fast walk, carrying huge red boxes over, under, down and around uncountable obstacles, and still has the energy for a goofy smooch whenever we stop. What a champ!
Anyhoo, this week. Well, our first day out of Omeo, Carol rode all the way out to Benambra with us, through a freshly-polished world of new green, as the night before we'd had a crazy mad thunderstorm and downpour. And Charles Connley drove down and delivered us lunch half way through the day! These guys - total legends, honestly. Its not every day one gets an honour guard out of town. But then we were on our own, bound for the legendary Tom Groggin Station via Davies Plain and the HIGH COUNTRY. Definitely deserves capitals.
Day 19 was a real treat, as it was consistently raining but I was invited in for morning tea by a real kind couple living in literal paradise. They had seen me riding the day before, and had decided to accost me with fresh baked scones and oaten hay for the horses - so lovely! I left loaded up with peaches, apples and hard boiled eggs, yummo! But the next morning, up in the dreamy alpine pastures of Long Plain, Mr Richard was a tad lame, so we spent two days lounging around in the sun. Two days later, Richard was fine and we were off, climbing steadily with the forecast threat of snow on my mind, up onto Davies Plain and the shelter of the historic cattlemens' hut, and then down to Tom Groggin. And gosh, was it ever down! 1000m over the course of 6km, in the rain (thankfully the snow missed us!), sliding through the clay. Literally. The horses seemed to spend half their time on their haunches as I tried not to get squished under either of them when they lost traction. But then, hoo ha! What river is that?! Yes indeed ladies and gentlemen, THE MURRAY RIVER! Just a beautiful alpine stream really, and a lovely night with a roaring fire at Dogmans Hut (the wood given to me by some absolutely lovely humans hunting deer.... Only afterwards did I think that actually, they were POACHING deer, what with it being a national park and all.... But they were incredibly nice and gave me a whole half a ute of fire wood, so who am I to judge?).
But did I think that because we had reached the Murray, it was literally downhill from here? Far from it! The next day and a half we headed around Tom Groggin Station and followed the Harrington Track towards Bunroy Station. Absolute highlight of the trip so far. Flat? No way. Epic? Hells yeah. The Harrington Track was originally cut as a mining and access route in the 1890s, but is most famous now as being "Riley's last ride." This was the route that Jack Riley, the inspiration for Banjo Paterson's The Man From Snowy River, was carried when he fell gravely ill, and died en route half way along. And without meaning to sound flippant, no wonder poor old Riley died! That track is bloody STEEP! But it was such an incredible experience, to ride down the narrow Murray Gorge, along a tiny rough benched track, looking over at the snow-capped Main Range behind....
Ah, the Victorian High Country.
And then the last two days, Days 26 and 27, were spent rolling along minor roads to wind up at the Corryong Recreation Ground. A few days of fattening up the boys, and then WESTWARDS!
Heading to Benambra (photo credit: Carol Faithful)
The boys up at Davies High Plain
Morning at Dogman's Hut, Tom Groggin