With three walks planned over the next month our return to Baw Baw was our first. Before I get too far into the story, I have to say that Andrea has maintained a good level of physical activity over winter, while I haven't!
Our intention was to do a repeat of our previous trip to Baw Baw, but unfortunately a severe storm had left several trees over the access road to the Mt Erica car park. We decided to head to St Gwinear car park and depart from there. With only an hour or so of light remaining we walked the 3kms to the campsite nestled between St Gwinear and Camp Saddle (on the Alpine Walking Track). It was a very chilly night and we woke to a very stiff tent and frost all around! It is one of our most favourite spots to camp as you have the entire valley to yourself!
 |
| Photo taken the next morning! |
On the way to our first night camp, we started to glimpse patches of snow here and there. This became more than just a glimpse as we started walking the next morning. We decide to head toward Mt St Phillack, the Alpine Walking Track welcomed us with mud, snow, rivers of water running down the track all making the going very slow and quite tiring. Mental note to self......doing a couple of walks to work with a 15kg pack doesn't constitute fitness training! After reaching Mt St Phillack (not very far 2kms....) we continued to St Phillack Saddle. It was at this point we had the choice to head over to Baw Baw or continue onto Mt Whitelaw and Stronachs camp.
We decide on heading to Baw Baw. We took a track that started around 100 metres up from the sign post which led as to Sandys Flat and West Tanjil Creek. We walked up onto the Ski fields following the Village Trail and had a pleasant lunch in the Village.
 |
| Where was that track? |
 |
| West Tanjil Creek |
I've got to say that we were both pretty buggered! Andrea was feeling better than I was but it was a very hard slog all morning. So far we had travelled around 7kms...it felt like twice that!The Village Trail does a circuit around the ski fields after lunch we continued to follow the circuit....from here the day developed into a real slog. We found the track directly up to St Phillack Saddle that commences at Baragwanath Flat. It looked okay but as we progressed it was far from it. The photos tell the story, but once again it was mud, water and snow...finding the track with limited signage was impossible. By the time we got back to St Phillacks Saddle we had covered 8kms through scrub that tore at our legs, mud that clogged our boots and snow which had us off track on several occasions.
The decision to head back to Camp Saddle and possibly old faithful for the night was made quickly as we were extremely tired by now. For the first time during the walk we actually felt like we were walking down hill. This was a huge relief to our wearisome legs. We arrived at our campsite about 6.5 hours after departing, having covered around 14 kms. We ate a slow dinner and headed into the tent soon after and both were a sleep before it was dark!
We were going to explore the valley up into Mustering Flat, but by the look of the overgrown track we decide to head up to the summit of St Gwinear and then back to the car.
 |
| Not a creek? |
 |
| Baragwanath Flat |
