Feathertop

This weekend I went hiking up Feathertop with some mates from uni: Kat, Kate, Hayley and Julia.

Kat and I had been talking about going up since before easter. The week before it had snowed for the first time this year on Hotham and we were concerned about extreme cold weather but an unexpected day off on Friday saw us take off Thursday evening and camp at the caravan park in Harrietville next to the Ovens River before it got any colder.

We woke up latish and after waiting for others to come and join us headed up the mountain around eleven. We planned to hike a steep 8kms to the old camp site a km south of Federation Hut and supposedly more sheltered. I haven't done an overnight mountain hike since Seoraksan in South Korea many years ago when I was younger and much fitter. Trying to guauge where we were on the map, the kms seemed to be passing very slowly; we had supposedly done about 3kms when we stopped for lunch around twoish. Yeah, we weren't flying but they were the longest three kms of my life and I was practically in tears. I think the worst part was coming to terms with the fact that we weren't half way yet, and everything was engulfed in a not so dull ache.

I was in front about a half a km later when we came upon our campsite and suddenly the world was beautiful again. A beautiful flat sunny patch, we ditched bags and made like cats. That afternoon we even found the energy to hike the remaining 2 and a half kms to the summit where the clouds teased us with views that they took away as quickly as they gave.

Coming back was much easier but as we reached the rainforest canopy almost at the bottom, I realised how much as I like mountains, I like forests much more; the rich smell of hummus, the call of the birds and the conversations between the wind and leaves connect me much more deeply to the earth. On the way home we stopped at the big shed cafe and had the yummiest cake ever. I got home and fell into a hot bath with a glass of wine immediately.

In spring we're going to hike from Hotham to Harrietville. Wanna come?

Photos are here.