Posted Monday night on Facebook: ‘Listen to the birdsong: 6:30am Monday morning in one of the most remote spots in Victoria, Wonnangatta River Alpine Nat Park. From Melbourne it would take you 7 1/2 hours by car (1 1/2 of them 4WD) and either a solid day’s hiking or 4 hours in a pack raft to get there, but it is worth it! (Another 7 hours paddling and 6 hours driving to get home – 4 for me. I will sleep well tonight…well I did last night actually despite the dingo chorus rolling around the mountains. Trip report here: http://www.theultralighthiker.com/pack-rafting-the-remote-wonnangatta/‘
I had to get out at this rapid (about half way between the Moroka and Eaglevale anyway, so I thought i would record it. The sound alone should kindle a desire in your heart to be there yourself:
As you can see my Pocket Poncho Tent (185 grams) worked a treat, though it did not rain actually. If it had I would have been snug and dry. There was ample room for myself and all my gear scattered around the edges. I could manage to not touch the top or sides so my sleeping bag stayed dry, though there was of course the normal condensation you get from the inside of the shelter being warmer than the outside.There is nothing to be done about ‘dew point’. It is a physical reality – but you don’t need a double skinned tent (or all the weight). A simple tarp like this (and a Polycro groundsheet – at 46 grams) is quite adequate: http://www.theultralighthiker.com/ultralight-ground-sheet/)
My breakfast view. There is certainly plenty of firewood here – which I find very sad. The two big fires which came through here back about 2008-9 killed vast numbers of trees (and even vaster numbers of animals and birds). This fire-killed wood is now dropping everywhere (you have to be careful where you camp) and blocking up the river awfully in places. Curiously, it burns not unlike pine. All the goodness has been ‘cooked’ out of it somehow. A small pile of wood which used to last you overnight is now replaced with about a trailer load’s worth (which does not). Morning and night the well-nigh deafening echoing valleys of morning and evensong are mostly silent. Along the rivers the birds are starting to come back, as the video – well the audio actually above illustrates.
About to set out – looking up towards the top flat.
And downstream.
And off I go again!
Mt von Guerard Creek confluence – notice the tiny waterfall. Just below here there used to be a giant log jam I guess an acre tor two) which made for a very difficult portage. It persisted for 30+ years I guess. Eventually the river changed its course!
Looking back at the beginning of the bottom flat.
Rounding the bottom flat.
There is a bit of a rocky run below the bottom flat (and below the small flat below it). 
Looking back up river in the deep pool above the small flat.
It’s a great pool isn’t it? I have eaten a few trout out of this one, I can tell you!
As I said there is another rocky run below the small flat.
Lots of dragons:
And I am at Mt Darling Creek confluence.
Looking downstream from Mt Darling Creek, looking upstream.
At Mt Darling confluence: Look at this. I was there about six weeks ago and some guy had purloined an old tent (and other things) I had wrapped in a garden bag and hidden under a tree to shelter all his possessions with. He had also bagsed my campsite which I had long ago cleared – and burned my gathered firewood. And it it still just the same – but no-one around. This is apart from having made use of the walking track I had cleared – to this point. Now it is just his campsite alone apparently (and I will have to make another, a more discreet one for myself). Usually I expect more civilised conduct in the bush, but yobbos get everywhere nowadays! How many dozens of times I have camped here. I should have left him a note, except I don’t really want to know him.
There is another rocky race below Mt Darling, then a nice little rapid.
The Snowy Bluff looms on your right.
There is a huge deep pool on a left hand corner. What monstrous fish it harbours. The river does a big remote loop to the left then.
The deer have been wallowing right in the river on this loop!
Coming out of the loop into straighter, deeper sections.
And soon I have come to the Moroka confluence! At about 4 1/2 hours from Hernes Spur I am a bit over half way to Eaglevale.
Another view looking up the Moroka. What a splendid little river and an excellent trout stream it is…but that is for another day!
