Day 9 – 14/12/13 – Merrijig Vic -> Jamieson Vic

What an Awesome Day!

 

The alarm sounded at 4:50 but not much happened until 5 as two bleary eye boys were rustled into existence for the drive to Craig’s Hut. The drive was only about 30ks but ended up taking about 45 mins as we had to stop and drag a tree that had fallen onto the road. Unfortunately we missed the colours of the predawn light but the softness of the morning sun and the serenity of looking out over the glowing mountains were awesome.

 

 The Man from Snowy River has been one of my favourite movies since I was a lad and seeing Craig’s hut was always on my bucket list and it was worth the wait. We all took a walk around the hut while I gave the camera got a work out trying to capture a shot like you see in the shops!  It is a majestic place and all I could hear in my head while I was walking around was na na na na na na na na na na, da da da da da da...Jessica’s Theme.

 

Pretty soon the webber was retrieved from Izzy and a delicious meal of frittata and bacon was made to order! The boys then went on a hunting trip trying to spear rabbits with no success – bugger

Back down the mountain and after De had a morning nana nap we packed up and headed for Wilson’s Promontory – and this is where it gets shall we say..... interesting. I had noticed there was a bit of a short cut just before Merrijig that would take us over to Jamieson that would save us about 10k worth of driving and thinking it would be nice to see some off the road places so decided to take it.

Hmmm......There was a sign as we turned onto the short cut road saying tight turns for the next 16kms and as the short cut was 15kms I was confident I was heading in the right direction. The dirt road was in pretty good condition and there were heaps of 4wds and vans coming in the opposite direction, more than we had seen all week, so they must all be taking the same short cut right? After 16kms we came across Sheep Yard Creek camping area where there were still 20 or so vans or tents as well as a couple of horse trail rides set up beside a pristine creek. It looked like a really nice area but we were heading for the Prom so no time to stop. While the road still was in reasonably good condition it seemed to continue upwards, and upwards, and upwards.... and hang on, if you read about our trip to the Blue Mountains you will remember that I don’t get vertigo, but the sheer cliffs that are snaking up these seemingly endless valley and the 5t rig that I am driving them along are starting to make me feel just a tad nervous.

Fast forward two hours of the ‘short cut’ and we reach a simple ‘fork’ in the road at the top of a saddle welcoming us to the Jamieson State Forest as we leave the Alpine National Park. ‘Great we are heading to Jamieson so we must be getting close’ I though comforting myself that maybe it was all going to turn out fine. After close consultation with the map that doesn’t have said State Forest on it we decide to take the left fork as it appears to be used more frequently. As we started to descend down the narrow winding dirt road I decide to see if anybody is about on the UHF radio that may be able to help. Amazingly I straight away I raise three helpful 4wders that consult their detailed maps and tell us where we are ( how can you be in the middle of absolutely no where and still be somewhere I am not 100% sure) and that we should have taken the right turn. “You bloody ripper” I think, as I am sure De’s patience with my short cut was beginning to wear veerry thin at this stage. “We just need to turn around and we’ll be in Jamieson, I venture the question what the road is like and how long to get us there. ‘Six hours of serious 4 wd tracks and we should be there no problems’ was the reply! I was at this stage that I decided not to look in the direction of my co driver for the rest of the trip for fear of turning into stone. Shortly after we found a very safe place to turn the rig around and head back down my short cut road from where we came.

 

 

 

We stopped for lunch at the fork and I noticed the ski lifts at Mt Buller on the next ridge just slightly above the height we were at. This told me two things. One we were up bloody high and two we were a LONG way from where we were meant to be! An hour and half later (that’s 3 ½ hrs total) we made it back to the beginning of my short cut and we headed around the ‘Long Way’ to Jamieson and the free camp area at Drs Creek.

 

Lunch at "The Fork"

 

We eagerly disembarked from Izzy and a fellow camper, Nick from Germany, struck up a conversation and told us about the fresh water yabbies and trout in the river. Down we went to have a swim and play in water that was amazingly warm and we came out with three tasty little morsels that were cooked and served within 5 minutes of being out of the water. I have eaten plenty of red claw out of Somerset but these fellas were out of pristine fresh water and were bloody good eating! We retired early after a looooooong day of going pretty much nowhere BUT with a valuable lesson learnt – NO MORE SHORT CUTS!

A big thanks to my super patient wife for putting up with me xxoo... love ya little lady

Tomorrow our second attempt to get to The Prom - maybe we should have learnt two lessons from today!