Monday, October 6, 2008

On its best behavior

Walkers: fog and very cold conditions occur on the plateau anytime of year. Be prepared.

ABW Grampians trip - Major Mitchell Plateau

Translation, cos really, I've never seen a sign like this before whilst hiking, basically Plateau Subject to Alpine Conditions. Really? Yup. An unprotected windswept high plateau can be pretty bloody cold. But, Major Mitchell Plateau was on it's best behavior. Sunny days which seemed warm, despite the vapour coming from our mouths (turned out it was 9 degrees on Saturday during our plateau ascent). Simon declared it was the coldest he had ever slept (that's a big call for him), turned out it was 0.2 degrees overnight, one of his water bottles froze. But there was no wind, so really, the weather was perfect, indeed on our descent it turned windier (very very cold wind) and Monday morning it rained, as we were on the bus leaving the Grampians the plateau was shrouded in dense fog.

Amazing views. Excellent camping, so weird to camp next to flowing creeks. So much water. The Grampians and me are gonna make good friends.






Stats:
Saturday
  • Distance: 13.2km
  • Start time: 8.42am
  • End time: 3.52pm
  • Moving duration: 4h 12m
  • Stationary duration: 3h 04m
  • Moving average: 3.1km/h
  • Overall average: 1.8km/h
  • Max speed: 10.9km/h
Sunday
  • Distance: 14.6km
  • Start time: 8.59am
  • End time: 4.23pm
  • Moving duration: 4h 29m
  • Stationary duration: 2h 47m
  • Moving average: 3.2km/h
  • Overall average: 2.0km/h
  • Max speed: 7.2km/h

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