Stephen Whiteside's Famous Poetry Blog

Astrocamper

Monday, April 26th, 2010

We have a favourite spot we go bushwalking – a hidden valley, a narrow siltation plain beside a bubbling little river, and mountains rising steeply on both sides. It’s a great place to lie back, look at the stars, and contemplate your real place in the scheme of things! The Earth is just a big space-ship, when you think about it.

Astrocamper

I’m lying in my sleeping bag,
Which lies inside my tent,
Which lies inside a valley
By a river that is bent.

Above me is the tent’s roof.
Above that are the stars,
And asteroids and satellites,
And planets such as Mars.

Below me is the tent’s floor.
Below that is the ground,
Consisting of our planet,
Which is big and hard and round.

I feel as though I’m anchored to
A firm and solid base.
It’s hard to comprehend, in fact,
I’m spinning fast through space!

© Stephen Whiteside   19.05.06

Published in “Blast Off” magazine April 2007 (Volume 92, Number 3), by the New South Wales Department of School Education.

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The Crosscut Saw

Sunday, April 18th, 2010

The Vallejo Gantner Hut

Does your toilet have a view as good as this?

The Crosscut Saw

The Crosscut Saw is a long ridge in the Razor Viking wilderness, in the heart of the Victorian Alps. It has long been regarded as a bushwalkers’ mecca. My own bushwalking career, however, has been dominated by cross-country skiing, and I leapfrogged the Crosscut Saw in my youth, going straight to Mount Bogong (Victoria’s highest mountain) instead. In fact, I climbed Mount Bogong once a year for nine consecutive years from, 1976 – 84.

In recent years, I have been keen to walk the Crosscut Saw before I lost the fitness required to do so. Fortunately, my son and daughter have become keen bushwalkers also, so I now have regular companions. I planned to walk it a couple of years ago with my son, but the December 2006 bush fires made that impossible.

This summer past I saw a chance to do it again. I had a good look at the map, and worked out a plan of action. There is an excellent hut, the Vallejo Gantner Hut, near the start of the walk. I felt that if the walk proved too difficult for any reason, we could always retreat to the hut. I also felt we would need two nights to do the work justice.

I approached my son about it. He was keen, but felt he could only give me one night. (He is now old enough to have his own busy social schedule.) I felt this was going to be a challenge, but was determined to give it a go nonetheless. My daughter and a friend of my son also agreed to accompany us, and we scheduled the walk for early January, at a time when I was on holidays.

We left Melbourne nice and early, but it was 12.30pm by the time we parked the car in the Howitt car park and started walking. We reached the hut in about an hour, had a bit of look around, and it was about 2pm by the time we got going again. The weather was fine, but hot.

Once we reached the Crosscut Saw, we made good progress. It is quite steep in parts, though, and I wasn’t always able to persuade the kids to climb to the top of every hill. They were keen to traverse them instead. This lead to us losing the track on a number of occasions, and having to “bush bash” our way back again. It robbed us of both time and energy.

The other problem was that, being a wilderness, there are no signs. I had a good contour map, but was having difficulty matching the terrain with the contours. (It’s never been one of my strengths, I have to admit!) The upshot of this was we were never exactly sure where we were, which is a little unnerving.

At about 4.30pm, just after we’d passed what we thought was probably Mt. Buggery, the track dropped away abruptly below us. It seemed to go down, down for a long way, then rise again in the far distance. What followed then was a long walk along the slopes of what was probably Mt. Speculation. Then we had to climb over the summit of that, and walk down to (hopefully) a creek and a camp-site.

I looked from one to the other of the party. I just didn’t think we were going to make it. The problem was that the hut was a long way back by now, and I wasn’t sure we would make that either. (When I had originally considered falling back to the hut, I hadn’t anticipated making such good progress beforehand!) The third option, of course, was to camp out on the ridge itself. I had noticed a good camp-site a short distance back. The problem with this was that we would have no water. We had carried a lot, but we had also drunk a lot. On the other hand, we did have some tetra fruit juice and long life milk packs. We’d be OK, but it wouldn’t be very comfortable.

After a good deal of discussion and a vote (decided 3 – 1), we decided to turn back rather than press on. In fact, we made pretty good progress again, and reached the hut about 7.15pm, still with plenty of day-light.

There was another couple at the hut when we arrived. They retired early, but my gang was keen for a “night out” on Saturday, so we headed down the track to the lavish new composting drop-toilet, which has a particularly spectacular view, and hung out there for an hour or so!

Next morning, we slept in, and then simply walked back to the car (abandoning our earlier plan to climb Mt. Howitt!). On the way back, I wrote this poem in my head, and wrote it down as soon as we reached the car.

You can also find it here: http://www.australianalps.environment.gov.au/walktrack/challenging-sections.html

The Crosscut Saw

Have you walked the length of the Crosscut Saw?
If you’ve made the journey, you’ll know the score.
When your shoulders ache and your feet are raw,
You’ve walked the Crosscut Saw.

Have you climbed the slopes of Mt. Buggery?
(Well, it might be that, but it might not be,
‘Cause we’ve checked the maps, and we can’t agree.
Is it Mt. Buggery?)

Have you gazed in the depths of the Horrible Gap,
And felt like a rat that’s been caught in a trap?
Started to sweat, and get into a flap?
That’s the Horrible Gap!

Have you gazed on the slopes of Mt. Speculation
With a certain degree of consternation,
‘Cause it might or might not be Mt. Speculation.
(Hey, that’s speculation!)

Have you turned, resigned, for the Gantner Hut,
For the window forward is firmly shut?
You tried, but you failed to make the cut,
So it’s back to the cosy hut.

Have you staggered the length of the Crosscut Saw,
With a lurch and a limp and a crazy yaw,
For inspiration has turned to chore?
That’s the Crosscut Saw!

© Stephen Whiteside   07.01.10

So I still haven’t climbed the Crosscut Saw! (Or perhaps I have. It’s difficult to be sure…) I’m determined to have another crack at it one day, but next time I’ll make sure that I have two nights to do it in!

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