Alpine Area, Victoria, Australia, January 2021
This is a lovely short walk from Mount Hotham’s General Store / Pub up one of the beginner runs to the summit of Mount Higginbotham and down the other side. the elevation is only 105m so while I say ‘up’ it is not too tough.
We arrived in Hotham Heights in the late afternoon after driving up from Melbourne (about 5hrs) for the weekend. We plan to do the Falls Creek to Mount Hotham Alpine Hike over 3 days, but because this requires that you book the huts at Cope Hut and Dibbins Hut and being that no one can do anything with their summer holidays but tour our own backyards – every part of regional Victoria is packed. With that the sites were booked on both Friday and Saturday so we took Monday and Tuesday off work and commence that hike on Sunday morning. But being the weekend, we wanted to see what else we could do in Hotham and this walk was a cracker!
After dinner at the pub (too much super tasty pizza), Phil suggested we walk some of it off with a walk to the summit – I think initially we decided to do Hotham Summit, but we didn’t have enough time before sunset, plus after a shared bottle of wine and large pizza, the altitude hindered our pace a bit, but I am not complaining – I would do this walk again and again!
Taking off around the base of ‘Big D’ a ski run, you then hug the left track heading up the ski run, while steeper, it hugs the ridge, offering spectacular views when done as the sun is setting. We didn’t move very fast as we were constantly stopping to take photo after photo.
The bush fires in the area have left the snow gums as skeletons and the sunset casts beautiful pinks and oranges across their bones.
The sun started to set on us pretty quickly changing the whole area into a wonderland of pinks, oranges and reds.
The walk back home takes you down from the summit and into Hotham Central. You can tell you have arrived here as you are suddenly in what seems to resemble a new housing unit. We wound our way around down the hill and headed back on the track called Higgi Drive, which weaves between the alpine accomodation and back to the General Store.
So the question.. another one for the road… we were walking…
This time (definitely not always) we took the ‘right’ road and when back to our apartment.. tomorrow we hope to do the Huts Walk with a few extras, so getting a reasonable nights nap is not a bad plan.
3.15km (to back just past the General Store), 1hr (with lots of photo taking).
Hiking Adventures 