Alpine National Park, Victoria, Australia, (January 2021)
After planning carefully (well we looked at the map while eating breakfast), we worked out that we could do a side trip to Mount Jim (1818m) on our way. Side trips that are marked are easy to find given you can rely on the numbered posts. So with our post number in mind (317), we packed up our tent and reluctantly said goodbye to the stunning views.
Secretly I had hoped that in the morning we would wake to find brumbies on the plain below us, or maybe wallabies, but it was all quiet except for the birds and the gigantic bunnies (Phil says they are hares as their ears stick up). I was pondering this and the disappearance of all the other hikers (except the free hikers who I think were doing day trips from the site) when I realised it was now 8.30am. But not before a morning explore of Cope Hut.
Cope Hut was built in 1929 by the Ski Club of Victoria and is quite huge inside, there is plenty of area inside and at each end are two twin beds with a ladder between them up to a shelf bed which could sleep another three people, meaning that 10 could sleep quite easily inside.
From the Hut it is a short walk up the gravel and across the road and then you are on the plains. An expanse of very low shrub and flowers spread in every direction, halted only by the raise of a mountain or range. Underfoot it was a mix of rock, dirt and marshes boggy mud. There is also a big of horse poo here – maybe brumbies? or maybe trail riders?
The going is fairly easy and our pace was quite good, knocking the kilometres off easily. After a while we start to slightly descend towards Cope Saddle Hut. I think this one is really pretty (needs a new coat of paint, would make a good Dulux advert if they wanted to get their weather shield paint on it), but it is painted white with a red roof, all fading and showing through to the wood work, but pretty in my eyes none the less. Here we also found the answer to the horse poo as we were joined by a group of ten pack horses carrying tourists, though these had come to our right (perhaps Pretty Valley near Falls) but were going a little faster than us so when our tracks merged they were in front of us.
We followed their prints fresh in the mud and the piles of dung which were easily identifiable by the noisy swarm of flies as we continued around Mount Bundera to pole 333, being the turn off towards Weston Hut and Tarwonga Hut. We instead took the left turn and continued on the Great Alpine Walk to our noted post 317. Now there is NO sign post here to Mount Jim. We did pass one earlier to Mount Cope (1837m) (though that path wasn’t marked on our map – so we didn’t realise it was accessible from this side of the Mountain, generally the map marks access to Mount Cope on the otherside), but we knew there was a path or should I say a way and so finding some rocks, we propped our backpacks up and took off on a beeline to the Mountain.
I do feel like I can fly when I unload my pack and it was quite nice picking a path across the heath to the base of the mountain. We then found a path quite easily up the side and scrambled our way up to the top. Now when I say ascent, the whole trip from the snow pole is probably about 400-500 metres and you gain about 40-45 metres… too easy. And the best part is that the view is a massive reward for the little expenditure of effort, and when I walked to the other side, down on the plain… brumbies!
From Mount Jim it was a skip back down to our bags where we and the flies had lunch. Phil developed a technique of allowing the March Fly to get fully into bite position and then he could whack them, I was too impatient. After lunch it was a nice slow rise up off the plain with the brumbies on our left, eyeing us nervously as we crested the rise and disappeared from view.
Over the rise we shortly hit the turn off for Young’s Hut and campground and a group of four men who were about to head in that direction. We discussed the things you do when hiking, how steep is that hill, how hectic is the camp site, and how lucky are we with the weather and then after taking a photo of the group on each of their cameras we started our descent. First it is stunning as you reenter the snow gums, with wild flowers in abundance. You wind your way across the Basalt Temple ridge slowly descending until you hit the steep track down to Cobrunga Gap and Dibbin’s Hut.
Arriving at Dibbin’s Hut we dumped our packs on our platform and I took off to explore. Immediately on reaching the river I decided I wanted to stay down by it and not up on the platform. We found a spot not too far from the toilet and close to the river. Phil queried whether we should camp here because we had a platform booked. I said the rangers never come through and we can offer up our spot to others. So he went off to bathe in the river and I started to set up the tent.
Within 5 mins of starting to set the tent up and with Phil standing around in his underpants, in came the rangers! So I confirmed with him that he had no problem with us using a free camp site and helped me put one of the posts into the socket, while Phil awkwardly tried to jump into some more clothes. The rangers didn’t hang around for long, after checking the toilets and the Hut, they were back off the way they came.
The four guys that had gone through earlier had told us they were in a free site and moved onto a platform at 5pm and then a stack of people arrived at 6pm. But this was not the experience for us. At about 5pm a father and son passed through on their way to Young’s Hut to join the other guys, and this was it. Just us, the gurgling of the river and the wide valley. Perhaps they stayed away because it was an extreme fire danger day in Melbourne? but up here it was beautiful, nice and cool at night and a pleasant 20 during the day.
The hut is pretty and there is enough space to set up a few tents near the hut if you wanted to be a bit further away from the camp site. It is also close to the river and has a big picnic table.
Hiking Adventures 