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St Arnaud Ridge - Part 02

April 29, 2024

St Arnaud Ridge - Part 02
Not much sleep was had sausaged between two kids that flung their arms into my head all night long and with a full moon lighting up the tent, but I emerged well rested and to a most spectacular and still morning. A few of us wandered around exploring the plateau while others stayed cocooned inside while the first fingers of sun ate up the shadows. The tarns were big bowls of blue from above and liquid gold reflections from below.
Once the sun was up the kids had endless fun throwing rocks into the tarns and doing more snow-grass sliding. Following that we had a cracking start at 11am and set off to traverse the ridge with the kids leading. However 1:30 later with a brisk wind and misty cloud rolling in we were only 1.5km into our adventure so it was agreed that lunch was called for and no more stops after that.
After lunch the pace was steady and the wind was not as bad as expected along the ridge so we made good progress. The clagg cleared as we neared powder valley and we had lovely views all round, as we descended down the valley past more stunning tarns we found the perfect campsite out of the wind. Once camp was set up and dinner done the kids still had energy to play hide and seek tag behind the tussocks and tents.
With our campsite nestled deep in the valley we awoke to a chilly start. The kids were greeted by ice on the inside on the tents, frozen ice-block water bottles and frozen tarns. This made for excellent fun all round as there is nothing quite as rewarding as throwing rocks through ice and it re-freezing again.
After this we packed up and meandered down to the main valley passing waterfalls and a very impressive tarn on the way down. The kids led the way through the bush and then (with lots of chatting) down the road and out.







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