Day 4 Wallaces Hut/ Mount Cope/ Pretty Valley Hut

Pictures Day 4 Mount Cope etc.
Good night with odd dreams about being on a cruise ship in rough weather and looking for a massage!! Funny thing is, I wasn't seasick.
Again about last to breakfast, with the usual morning pandemonium. Thank goodness the coffee was good and the Weetbix nice and fresh. Ran out of milk tho!!
The walk today is flat, we are assured.
There's lots of Lycra at last, on the way out to the walk. We past a hoard of bike riders with Lycra that shrieks. It's the group we helped the other day, and I stop to catch up on Ariel, the injured rider. It appears he HAD some broken ribs and an injured A-C joint (joint between the collar bone and shoulder blade).

Wallaces Hut

The cars are parked at Wallace Gap, near Wallaces Hut and it truly is quite flat. Wallaces Hut is supposed to be the most photographed hut on the Bogong High Plains. Of course we added to that supposition..
It's then a short walk off the track to Wilkinson's Lodge that burnt down in extraordinary circumstances. It survived the terrible fires that devastated the region, only to burn down about 5 days after the fires were put out. It caught fire on the night the local police and firefighters were celebrating the end to the wild fires, and none were sober enough to drive the fire trucks, so the hut burnt down. The dunny survives.
We then join the Langford West Aqueduct that takes water off the Mitta Watershed into the local Rocky Valley storage dam. It's flat, well very slightly up as we are walking in a direction opposite to the flow. There are trout in the aqueduct which we can see occasionally. At this point we also join the Australian Alpine Walking Trail or AAWT. We also come across a snake lying quietly on the path, that  most of the walkers passed. It is about 10" long and happy for us to photo it.
The walk circuits past the Rover Lodge set up by the Scouts. The information board tells of their effort to get a cast iron stove to the hut, resorting to dragging it on greased poles from the nearest road.
We leave the aqueduct at the Bogong High Plains Road, walk up the road, past the site of the cyclist's fall,  then along a indistinct path to Mount Cope.

Mount Cope, looking to Hotham

Mount Cope sits on the Bogong High Plains and gives expansive view all around. We can see Mount Hotham Village, Feathertop, Mt Jim, Mt McKay and Mt Niggerhead. Great.
It's then a bushbash off the mountain to Cope Saddle and the SEC Hut which is pretty ordinary. Its at the confluence of two aqueducts that feed water into Pretty Valley Pondage which collects water for something.
the plains are quite boggy, rather like what we experienced on the Coast to Coast, though not quite as wet.
The walk finishes at Pretty Valley Hut, and nice hut in a very picturesque setting.
We have walked about 17 km and finish about 2.00PM.
Today is washing day, so all the dirty stuff is out for the washer. Typically, I find I have left about 3 items out and it's to late. Bugger.
Tonight we have the briefing for Monday's walk? This is so people on the rest day, tomorrow, don't feel they have to be back at 5.30PM for the briefing, so can stay out late.
Anyway more of that when it all occurs.
Dinner tonight is spag boll. and it's great. Most of the crew eat well before us, so it's Eve and Cliff, Hilary, Malcolm (whom we have adopted as we have too much spag.) and I left. Saturday night and everyone heads off for bed about 8.30PM. I am left alone doing my blog. No I am wrong, Kelly (wife of Patrick) is still doing the crosswords and Malcolm is up, doing I am not sure what. They are perched on the mezzanine, above me and very quiet.
That's ARPA for you
For those interested in the walk and other photos
http://www.everytrail.com/view_trip.php?trip_id=1409064&code=a576027d28f48b274c992236440c1f40