A Dangerous Business

Date: 14th October 2024

Start: Djardji-djawara Campsite (km 138.1)

End: Dunkeld (km 159.9)

Distance Travelled: 21.8 km

Total Distance Completed: 159.9 km

Song Currently Stuck in Head: My Heart Will Go On by Celine Dion

View from Mt Abrupt: white

Someone showed up at camp this morning. Like, right as I was getting out of bed to make coffee. This guy was attempting to do the entire trail… in just 4 days. He’d left Wannon campsite at 3am and had to reach Dunkeld by 2pm in time for his shuttle back to Halls Gap. Just goes to show there’ll always be someone crazier than you. 7 days has been plenty fast enough for me.

With Matt having a fairly lengthy drive ahead of him to get back to Melbourne, we didn’t want to leave camp too late, setting off just before 8am. Today would involve three major climbs, the first of these being Signal Peak. As expected, the track was steep, but with a great deal of assistance from stairs. Scrambling can be great fun, provided you’re only walking short distances; on the longer days that we’ve had, I tend to get a bit impatient if we’re not going a certain speed.

That concern wasn’t really on my mind today, and I got to enjoy seeing some pretty interesting rock formations whilst undertaking some very laboured breathing.

As expected, the top of Signal Peak was shrouded in cloud. Add in the cold wind blasting us in the face, we kept moving, making a short descent before beginning the second climb up to Mt Abrupt.

Occasionally the track would poke out of the trees and I’d cop the brunt of the wind swirling around these two mountains. Nothing dangerous but very much on the chilly side of things. The steep climbs meant several short breath-catching breaks were necessary despite the fact that us moving was the main thing keeping us warm.

At least it wasn’t raining, although the humid air brought out a rather unique creature, the canary worm. I’m not sure what it’s proper name is, but as you might expect from something called a “canary worm”, it’s a worm that’s bright yellow. In keeping with other brightly coloured beings in the animal kingdom, it’s poisonous. Just a little PSA if there’s any early birds reading this.

With clouds still enveloping the mountains, we reached the summit of Mt Abrupt. Reaching the tops of mountains usually elicits one of two reactions: “wow, what a cool view, let’s stay up here for a bit and admire it”, or “it’s cold/windy/raining and there’s nothing to see, let’s get down as soon as we can.” This was more of the latter.

Halfway down Mt Abrupt is the last campsite on the GPT, Mud-Dadjug. Still feeling pretty cold we hopped inside for an early lunch and a hot drink. The sky began clearing and from our camp we could see the finish line at Dunkeld, plus the final peak of the trail, Mt Sturgeon.

I was feeling pretty tired by this point and did my best to fight off finish line fever, to enjoy the last few hours I had on this magnificent trail. The weather had shifted since leaving Mud-Dadjug, the clouds and wind moving aside for a blast of sunshine, its heat reflecting off the rocks and back into my face. Would’ve been nice to have some cloud cover during the ascent, but oh well.

On the plus side, with sun comes great views, and we could now look back at Mt Abrupt, having a classic moment of, “wait, I was just up there?”

Steps, a lack of boulder scrambling, and a much lighter pack made the climb much easier than some of the other mountains Matt and I have crossed. It was still a sweaty business, with plenty of stops for water and air. A classic dark green Parks Victoria sign marked the top of the climb. We propped our packs against the sign, ascended the final couple metres and peered over the edge of Mt Sturgeon.

The sight of expansive mountain ranges, rock formations, and lakes that we had seen further north were replaced with an equally expansive plain of farms, with smaller peaks also visible in the distance. It gave me more time to reflect on the journey over the last 7 days, from that first climb up the slab at Mt Zero, the freezing night at Gar, reuniting with Matt in Halls Gap, and then scrambling up and over Mt Rosea, Mt William, Durd Durd, and countless other peaks throughout this park. My feet and joints may have been killing me, but I had still travelled close to 160 km in a week under my own steam.

I still had to get to town, so one last descent awaited me. The scrambling was mercifully kept to a minimum, a mixture of stairs and we’ll groomed paths slowly meandering their way down the slopes of Sturgeon, including some steel stairs over a couple steep cliffs.

My knee was genuinely in a lot of pain by this point so I was glad to reach the bottom and spend the last couple kilometres walking through a flat grassy meadow that reminded me of a TA farm track.

One final snake sighting later (just a copperhead) and we exited onto a road, taking us to the information centre on the main highway through Dunkeld. With that, our adventure was at its end. No symbolic signpost, no crowds of fellow hikers to congratulate us, just Matt and I embracing the end of a spectacular few days. With no real time for any of it to sink it, we said our goodbyes and he drove back to Melbourne. I would spend the night in Dunkeld at the caravan park, where I had a much needed shower, grabbing a juicy burger for dinner afterwards and spending the rest of the evening relaxing at camp.