Note from Charlie's Creek 13th January, 2014 Today I found the 'real' back door entrance into the State of Victoria at Tom Groggin Station. There is a shallow ford, about 15 metres wide, over a stony bottom across the Murray River. It is reached by a dirt track from near Jindabyne in New South Wales. On the Victorian side, in the Alpine Narional Park, there are some pretty rough 4WD tracks heading east on the Tom Groggin Track and south on the Davies Plain Track. I walked through the ford, it was only calf deep, across to NSW and then back again to Victoria. The water moves quite quickly here, but it was a lovely temperature so, standing in the sun I stripped off and had a quick dip and a wash. I was almost finished when another car arrived on the Victorian side so I had to be quick getting my shorts back on ... LOL. The two blokes in the car gave me a smile and a G'Day as they drove past me across the river. I am camping here at Charlie's Creek tonight after driving north-east up the Tom Groggin track to Tom Groggin Station and then south to Davies Plain Hut along the Davies Plain Track. Everything went very smoothly and I found the going, whilst very steep, to be quite an easy pleasant drive, except for one patch of loose rocks and sand. This changed once I got onto the Davies Plain Track. This is not only steep, but a few sections have loose rocks and places where people have spun their wheels leaving big holes in the middle of the slope. There were a couple of sections where my wheels started slipping and I thought I might have to winch myself up. Fortunately I managed to get through by taking a slightly different line, but it was pretty close! I imagine that those spots would be impossible after any rain, at least without a winch or having Diff-Lockers, which I don't. The Davies Plain Track is closed from May 1 to December 1. I would think they get quite a bit of snow up here and it wouldn't be pleasant camping. I can't see too many 4WD's getting up here with snow around! I am camped close to the creek crossing and a brumby (wild horse) was grazing close by when I arrived, but took off after checking me out. I wasn't pleased to see it. I got bitten on my foot by a horse fly yesterday and it is still painful. So far I haven't seen too many though which is great! The water in the creek here is pretty cold so I had a paddle to cool off after the hot drive up and down all those hills. Granted I stopped for lunch and a few other times to take some photos, but it took me 6 hours to do about 70 kilometres. I was taking it quite easy, but I would agree that this part of the track is properly rated 'Difficult'. This evening I went for a short walk along the road that I will drive south on tomorrow. The sun set a while ago and the last of the sunlight will be gone in about 30 minutes. A large moon is rising and has cleared the tree line so my walk was lit from both east and west. I had not realised that there are more camping sites along the creek. I rounded a bend in the road and there saw another, larger area with fire-pits and there's even a 'long drop' dunny (toilet). The total size of this spot is quite large and situated along the road which runs parallel with the creek. On the other side of huge creek the trees grow tall and they climb the hill to the east. I am the only person camping here tonight. The creek crosses the road a little way up and a flock of nearly twenty ducks were congregated at one of the pools there. Between me and the creek were nearly ten brumbys. The one closest to me raised the alarm and started snorting and prancing. I continued slowly until they all ran off a short distance and then turned to watch me again. The ducks flew off together and a rabbit scooted up the rise and into the trees to the west. There's a chill in the air now so I will be in my swag as it gets dark, a little after 9pm.
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