Sunday’s 17km walk on the Nine Mile Track from Mount Buffalo NP to Ovens had six attendees. Enroute to the walk we met the original walk leader (Marita) to collect maps, and arrange the car shuffle for the end of the walk. Marita was unwell, and unable to lead the walk.

Continuing onto the National Park, we parked at Nine Mile Point to begin the walk.

Nine Mile Track follows the ridge towards Ovens township, and is a vehicle track for management vehicles only, which allows a wide path for walkers to converse as they descend and ascend the route through the forest.

Starting at an elevation of about 780m we began descending, but it wasn’t long before we were ascending, then descending, and ascending along the ridge, reaching a high of about 820m.

Due to heavy rains over the previous night, the views included waterfalls on the Buffalo rockfaces, and we had views to the alps in the east after the low lying cloud disappeared.

Morning tea was held about an hour into the walk, and whilst getting unpacked for morning tea, Michael noticed he had been transporting the home of a spider upon his backpack. After disturbing the resident of the web, eventually the spider made its way off the backpack to establish a new home.

We continued on the ascending and descending nature of the walk, and had lunch at an open space with an intersecting track at the 10k mark. The clouds gave way to blue skies, we heard the kookaburras laughing and other birds tweeting, Fringe Lilies were out along with Sundews.

Close to the end of the walk, Marita met us in Selzer Lane and transported the two drivers back to the start of the walk to collect their cars.

The remaining walkers continued on to the Happy Valley Hotel for an afternoon tea of cold refreshments and muffins, while waiting for the drivers to arrive to have theirs.

A big thank you to Marita for her hospitality, and organising the car shuffle, which greatly reduced the wait time at Ovens before we could all return back to Wangaratta.

[Jeanette]