Round Mountain fire trail

Monday

It was overcast in the morning, but dry.

We headed west, across the Geehi forks, up onto the Strumbo Range and along the much overgrown Strawberry Hill fire trail — which is not even marked on the newer 1:25000 maps — to the main fire trail.

Notable sights along the way included a spider with scores of babies on her back (too skittish to be photographed, unfortunately) and a huge red fungus that was attracting flies with the smell of rotting meat.

Going north along that to the junction, we diverted a little along the road back towards Jagungal and made an early camp on the upper Tumut, in the shadow of the mountain. Several other groups of other walkers passed by.

With lots of time and pleasant weather, we sat around reading poetry — Camilla had brought along an old book of Australian verse, while Vic had a more humorous collection.

Tuesday

It was cold in the morning — about 2 degrees, and it hailed as we ate breakfast! — and soon started raining. So people headed off as they packed, just to keep warm, and we spread out over the road. There was only a little bit of wind, fortunately, but it didn't go above 4 degrees while we were walking. (I didn't take any photos while walking. My camera is rainproof, but it would have been unpleasantly cold to carry the camera and there wasn't much to photograph.)

There were six tents around Derschkos hut and it was full of people packing, who gave us a bit of a rude welcome when we went in to have a look.

We had a brief lunch or morning tea in the lee of a hill, but otherwise didn't stop as it was just too cold. As we trundled along the Toolong fire trail the fog came down, with visibility down to 20 metres or less.

We reached the car park a bit after 2pm.

The temperatures climbed steadily as we drove down from the high country. We had a late lunch in Cooma around 4: the cafe was just closing, so we got takeaway burgers and ate in the park, though it was a bit windy. Then it was an easy run back to a rather steamy Sydney.

Up: Round Mountain to Jagungal