Licola - Howitt - Wonnangatta - Talbotville - Dargo - Hotham - Murray - April 2021 [Archive]

17th April 2021, 05:55 AM

A quick photo dump of our solo ute weekday school holidays adventure our youngest just joined me on through the better known regions of the Victorian High Country - VHC :

Departed last Sunday morning through Powelltown with the weather looking quite discouraging but with hopes of chasing the seasons first early snow dumps:

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Over the hills and into Licola to camp out on the Wellington River for a first nights stay:

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Wood was pretty scarce after the areas coped a flogging over the previous Easter weekend, we did manage to log rat a few leftover bits from previous campers to keep warm:

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Aldi hot fish cakes and chips on the BBQ into our belly’s:

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Time to fire up the electronic maps fireside and.........piece of icrapple [emoji23]

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Thanks to good old fashioned paper maps we plotted out routes together the old fashioned way teaching our Littlen Odometer Navi usage:

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17th April 2021, 06:10 AM

Early to bed, early to rise we started heading up to the Howitt Plains and came across first snow at a level just below 1,000m and half decent snow at 1290m on the Tamboritha Saddle:

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Further up the Gorge Car Park (annual Licola forum trip playground) isn’t quite ready yet:

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Some rubbish found......rissoles everywhere I tells ya’s !!

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17th April 2021, 06:20 AM

Getting thicker and colder as we reach 1,600m nearing the plains up top:

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The Snowy Plains Airstrip 1,630m:

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A quick stop at Howitt Hut:

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Decided to NOT graffiti the Hut and organically left our vandalism outside in the carpark:

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17th April 2021, 06:32 AM

Time to air down and get down off the mountain for some warmth via the Zeka SPUR Track:

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Hot Aldi noodle stop halfway down to warm our belly’s:

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Arriving into the iconic Wonnangatta Station:

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Absolutely stoked, heaps of wood kindly left for our 2 night valley exploration stay:

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17th April 2021, 06:41 AM

Aldi Peking Duck in a pot for a flashy fun lahdedah dinner:

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Of course nothing warms you up like Engel Aldi ice cream after dinner:

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LB warming her feet by the fire, there goes another set of boots:

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17th April 2021, 06:48 AM

A perfect valley morning we awoke to:

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Offloaded the AggyBike and helmets out of their storage Expedition Box and safety gear back in the box along with Satellite phone for a days exploring:

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First stop on our adventure, the Wonnangatta PooPoo shed:

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17th April 2021, 07:02 AM

First stop, quietly walked up to the Cemetery with Black Cockatoo’s throwing Pine cones at each other:

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Friends of Wonnangatta & Parks have done an amazing restoration team effort on all the historical sites throughout the Station:

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17th April 2021, 07:08 AM

Across to the main homestead site:

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17th April 2021, 07:10 AM

The modern shelter hut:

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17th April 2021, 07:15 AM

The Elms Camping Area & Horse Yards:

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17th April 2021, 07:32 AM

Went searching for the original Zeka CREEK Track that we used to drop into the valley some 25+ years ago well before the Zeka SPUR Track was made:

Found some sort of unmarked mine shaft thingy:

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Learning to safely check depths before diving in:

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Found Zeka Creek after the Dry River intersection:

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Reckon this might be the old track but heads well off my new replacement Rooftop edition 3 maps but definitely in the direction of where I remember it dropping down off the Howitt High Plains/Zeka Spur Track start:

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17th April 2021, 07:40 AM

Back to base camp for some afternoon relaxation and art classes......sketch me what you see LB:

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Littlens take words so literally [emoji23]:

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Testing out the weather function on the new Iridium GO appy:

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Voice and texts work great but can’t seem to fetch the weather on the secondary appy:

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17th April 2021, 07:47 AM

Teaching the Littlen how to identify wet wood by that spew smell and confirming her choices by our work meter:

Off the charts spew time [emoji23]

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25% not too bad:

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Sub 15% is good to go, commercially saleable zero chunder smell [emoji23]

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17th April 2021, 08:05 AM

Ran some timing tests on matfew ‘s Petroleum candles for green wood emergencies, amazing results:

Disclaimer: Don’t let children anywhere near this trick and don’t knock the candle over yourself, boom time[emoji91][emoji51]

1/3 to 1/2 an aluminium can with say 50-100mm of Petrol, light from a distance using a wick dipped stick:

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5 minute mark:

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10 minute mark a big wind gust got it so restarted and shielded it from the breeze:

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15 minute mark:

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20 minute mark:

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25 minute mark:

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30 minute mark:

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Not quite 35 minutes and fully evaporated off:

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Could be a life saver or a life taker, works great though, please be careful [emoji120][emoji106]

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17th April 2021, 08:10 AM

Aldi Indian Butter Chicken night with Roti & Rice:
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Rossco

17th April 2021, 08:16 AM

Wow Markie, what a wicked little trip we really do have a bloody good backyard. . Awesome write and pics, looks like the season has well and truly changed, pretty much a week ago came through from the Avon and was lovely and warm even swimming weather. .

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Which was did you come out. . Edit apologies jumping the gun too soon . .[emoji1787]

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17th April 2021, 08:18 AM

Up early and out of the valley via Herne Spur Track, numerous shallow crossings at the moment on the way to the climb out:

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17th April 2021, 08:23 AM

Unfortunately we were too slow on the camera and the old icrapple phone has a horrible zoom.
At first we thought a giant fox crossed the track in front of us, what a rare and beautiful sight it was, an extremely plump and healthy Alpine Pure Dingo:

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17th April 2021, 08:33 AM

The 3.1km Herne Spur climb from Wonnangatta River 490m ASL up to Wombat Range Track intersection, circa 1,000m ASL had good dry surface traction Wednesday but some quite steep pinches I couldn’t photograph them specifically as we were too busy trying to keep the front wheels down on the track with the weight of the bike hanging off the back trying to pull ute mono’s [emoji23]
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17th April 2021, 08:41 AM

Off to Talbotville along the ridge line:

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A Private Station down below to the West:

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Dropped down into Howittville via Station Track to the East:

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17th April 2021, 08:52 AM

Up along the Crooked River to make camp for 2 nights at Talbotville.....although....

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Wood was extremely scarce and we got swamped by tour groups and I’d say 40-50 vehicles camping throughout the little historic township:

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Took off for a ride around searching for wood and dragged back behind the bike some so we wouldn’t loose or camp spot moving the ute:

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17th April 2021, 08:59 AM

Aldi Lamb Choppies for dinner and into bed for a sleepless night of Oldies Elvis Presly fighting some sort of Youngies DoofDoof until the wee hours:

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Packed up camp at 6:00am the next morning whilst warming my TD42 clacker engine for 20 minutes at 1,500rpm as payback before we hit the road outa Dodge!

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17th April 2021, 09:04 AM

Out and across to the Dargo High Plains:

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Cattlemen are starting to move their stock down for the winter:

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Mt Hotham out in the distance, looks like the snow from earlier in the week has melted:

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17th April 2021, 09:09 AM

Back down through Harrietville/Bright/Myrtleford and Wangarratta.
Made a surprise overnight stay with the family up on Ulupna Island to finish off our quick little GQ - MB & LB Adventure:

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Winnie

17th April 2021, 09:09 AM

Absolutely loving the piccies Mark. There is truly nothing better than daddy-daughter time in the patrol! It does look like she is almost having as much fun as you are [emoji23]
I think we need to organise a dads & kids trip at some stage.

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17th April 2021, 09:21 AM

Ready whenever you are Chrisso Mate!
Wonnangatta is a great kiddies playground [emoji106][emoji106]

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Hodge

17th April 2021, 10:00 AM

Dad & daughter bonding bush trip through the glorious high country... Absolutely priceless! Epic is an understatement in my mind.
Looked spectacular Marko mate. :clapping:
One day I'll throw my son in the car and away we go to similar adventures...

MudRunnerTD

17th April 2021, 04:33 PM

#thisisreallyliving

#makingmemories

So Bloody Good mate!!!!!!

matfew

17th April 2021, 05:11 PM

Wicked trip. Fire idea is awesome eh. Works a treat.

Nothing better daddy daughter two I'm in but I just need a car now haha

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jay see

17th April 2021, 06:07 PM

Surprised I didn't bump into you mate.
I've being around the the high country since Monday staying at a few of the huts, last night tonight and only night we've had phone reception.

Love this place.http://www.nissanpatrol.com.au/forums/images/imported/2021/04/245.jpg

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17th April 2021, 08:47 PM

TPC

18th April 2021, 09:45 AM

Love the pics and narration Mark.

How much did Aldi pay for the ad?

Rossco

18th April 2021, 10:31 AM

Bwaha yeah was thinking the same. . MBs adventures sponsored by Aldi but unfortunately the Apple sponsorship is on rocky ground lol. . .

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jay see

18th April 2021, 09:53 PM

Mother Natures VHC Heaven Brother [emoji120][emoji106][emoji106]
When you get time John Mate, send me a PM with your mobile number and I’ll shoot you back my new Sat number I’m checking nightly for SMS emergencies whilst away Futurarmering [emoji23]
Will happily scoot across and work together with our Trols hauling out them lightweight Aluminium/Tin broken jobbies [emoji23][emoji23]

Sent from my iPhone using TapatalkSorry for the late response mate, but we pretty much got up in the morning breakfast ,clean up and moved onto blue rag, then onto dargo for fuel and home. Just finished unloading the Patrol ready for daily duties tomorrow.

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19th April 2021, 04:24 PM

http://www.nissanpatrol.com.au/forums/images/imported/2021/04/243.jpg

I really need to start checking photos you put on here of me. What the heck? lol

Reminds me of Dazz and I filling up at the Pink Roadhouse...

http://www.nissanpatrol.com.au/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=83382&stc=1

rusty_nail

20th April 2021, 09:31 AM

you love a candid photo AB, well done mate.

MudRunnerTD

20th April 2021, 07:50 PM

I really need to start checking photos you put on here of me. What the heck? lol

Reminds me of Dazz and I filling up at the Pink Roadhouse...

http://www.nissanpatrol.com.au/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=83382&stc=1

Hahaha. I have never seen that pic. Classic. Great Trip.