Back in Melbourne between jobs and the weather was playing nice outside. So on a Wednesday night we headed into the city to have dinner at the Winter Night Market. Arriving an hour after it opened we met up with some friends and as it was early the queues were still quite small.
With so many food stalls, all of them have great options. My usual trick is to walk around and see which has the biggest line and head there first. This is how we found this amazing African bbq. Two meats and spicy rice for around $20 and it was actually a good sized meal.
Our next struggle was to find somewhere to sit down to eat. Towards the back of the market they had tables spread around and after waiting for a few groups to move on we finally scored some seats. Keeping everyone entertained during the night were roving performers. The Tubby Robot was on a motorised scooter, a one man band was walking around. Stilt walkers were dressed up in different costumes.
Seeing we had seats we did not want to give them up. So I left the others and went for a walk to get some more food. Finding stalls that did not have much of a line. I picked up very spicy fried chicken tenders at one store and a dish of Raclette cheese melted over herbed potatoes.
Being back home I didn’t want to just sit around the house on the weekend. So we packed up the car and headed up north to a campsite in Smoko. On Saturday morning we checked out the snow report to see if there was any and where we should head to go camping.
The forecast was not looking good. So we decided to not spend the money on accessing the main resorts and go up Mount Buffalo. It is a place that I occasionally visit but usually forget and bypass. We drove up and there was no snow at all to see. Only once we drove up the dirt road to the horn did it start getting cold. Still no snow on the ground but all the trees had ice coming off them.
Climbing up the track to the lookout was a lot of fun. Ice covered the rocks and without the handrails it would have been very difficult to get to the top.
Lake Catani campsite was closed for the normal campers but the Parks Victoria website said that from this weekend it would be open to walk in campers. So we hiked in and set up camp with another group around the hut. Testing out my new snow tent which I need more practice at pitching. It was not as tight as it should have been and I had not worked out which bits need to be open for the best ventilation.
Aussie mountain huts are very different to NZ ones. Ours are designed as an emergency shelter and most are not to be slept in. This one was very cold and breezy with the roof coming down over the walls but not sealing. We left our food there during the day and cooked our meals while sitting back and chatting with the other group. They had the same idea as us. Wanting to get out for some snow camping but had no luck with the snow.
Over the next 2 days we spent our time walking around the trails and planning where we wanted to go once there was snow up here. We walked up the Monolith Track from the campsite. It looks like it shouldn’t be still balancing, which is like a lot of the formations up on top of Mount Buffalo.
Camping on the other side of the lake meant that we could wait around on the rocks up top until the clouds blew away and the blue sky came out. Lots of walkers came up, had a quick look, not seeing anything and then hiked back down again.
A long time ago there was a ladder going up the side of the Monolith and there are still a few rock climbing routes that go up it.
Most of the walking tracks we followed had no other people on them. When we got closer to the road and car parks then we found out just how busy the top of the mountain is. There was a huge line of cars up at the chalet carpark with no free spots. So they were just driving around and around in circles to find one.
The lookout platforms and hikes around the chalet were great. You could easily hike to the top of the waterfall and over to the hang gliding platform looking within a few minutes. We had to wait awhile up here but eventually one cloud blew away to show us the valley and then another covered it up again.
On Monday we packed up and drove back to Melbourne. Relaxed and recovered after a month’s worth of 12 hour days. It always feels good to get out in the bush.
Welcome to my Adventures 
Lesson for today:
Smoko is a place. 🙂
And sad that our huts lack The Snug. 😦