In 1983, I set out to hike the length of the relatively new Alpine Track that traversed the Victorian Alps. I didn't make it the whole way, mainly because of sore feet, and hitch-hiked home from Mt Hotham. The Alpine Track was later extended into New South Wales and became known as the Australian Alps Walking Track. In retrospect, I learnt lessons from this hike about planning, tolerance of discomfort, and focus that benefited me in all of my subsequent adventures.

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Australian Alps Walking Track - Mt Speculation to near Mt Selwyn South Saddle

Day:  007
Date:  Monday, 12 December 1983
Start:  Mt Speculation
Finish:  Near Mt Selwyn South Saddle
Daily Kilometres:  27.5
Total Kilometres:  177.8

Journal:
Got up early for big day and set off at 6:30am.  Tedious descent through scrub from Mt Speculation then up Mt Despair after getting water from a trickle running down the road.  After Despair, on to the Razor which took 90 minutes of scrub-bashing to cover 1.5km.  Then down to Viking Saddle where I met a guy and his son (Polish origin) who were walking the AAWT from Mt Skene to Harrietville.  We had a pleasant chat then I carried on up The Viking (1500ft in 50 minutes).  From there it was a tedious, difficult-to-follow, scrub-bash descent to the other side where I had lunch and went looking for water in extremely thick scrub without luck.  Carried on and found a water tank at Barry Saddle.  Then tried to push on to Mt Selwyn South Saddle for the night but at 9:00pm too dark and too tired so stopped.  Just in time because it started to rain.  Over-tired, I had a bad night.

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