#8: Climb the highest mountain in the ACT and have a shot at the top

It was time to get started on one of the more "longer term" bucket list items. Being the only multi-part item on the list, #8 - climbing the highest mountain in each State/Territory of Australia really needed to get started sooner rather than later. So it was with that in mind that Kunnal and I decided to climb Mt Bimberi, the highest mountain in the ACT.

Mt Bimberi was an appropriate first mountain, given that we live in the ACT. Also, given that Kunnal had some budget constraints this year, we thought it would be a good day-trip one to tick off as we wouldn't have to do much travelling. Little did we know that our "day-trip" was going to be epic.

Not only is Mt Bimberi the third-highest of the climbs we have to do (at 1912m), but it's not exactly accessible from the ACT. We did the calculations and we would have to wake up at 5am in order to even get to the start point of our walk and have enough time to complete the 22km trek before daylight hours end. It was going to be a long day.

Setting off walking at 9am

So to get to Mt Bimberi from Canberra you have to drive down to Cooma, then up round the western edge of the ACT on the NSW side. There was then a dirt road for around 100km before getting to a gate that signifies the start of the walk up to Mt Bimberi.

We set off at a brisk pace, but after about a km or so, we encountered our first slope... and it was steep. We plodded our way up, pondering whether or not we should have trained more or something. As we crested the hill we were greeted by our first view of Mt Bimberi:

Mt Bimberi looming in the distance

"Remote area navigation"? We had a compass... Does that count as prepared?

 The next hour or so passed by uneventfully. I was very much enjoying getting out for a bushwalk as it had been quite a while since last I'd done one.

Posing at Murrays Gap. It might not look like it, but that grass
behind us is growing out of what is basically a big puddle

It was when we got to Murrays Gap - the gap between Mt Bimberi and its "next door neighbour" Mt Murray, that things got a little more interesting.

The border between NSW and ACT is defined by the ridge of mountains we would be following. So Murrays Gap was actually the first point during the walk we actually encountered the ACT. We would then be following the border up to the peak. We found walking the state line interesting enough, but what was worrying us was that Murrays Gap was pretty much a swamp after recent rains.

As you can tell from our attire in the photos, we were well prepared for walking through a swamp. Sneakers handle that without any problem. *cough* Our socks were soaked.

Kunnal walking past some navigation stones.
Or "pans" as we were corrected into saying by fellow hikers.

This also marked the point from which there was no longer a marked path. We would be bush-bashing from here on in as we followed the ridge up to the top.

The reality wasn't that bad. While there wasn't actually a path, many hikers had done the same route and had left little piles of rocks to show the way (in case "keep going up" was too confusing a navigation technique). I think this spoiled the mood a little as it no longer felt we were going into unexplored territory. That mood was spoiled further when we encountered a group heading down who had been to the top already (we also met another group on the way down - guess that's what happens on a long weekend!). It didn't matter, the walk was still great.

It was steep going, but eventually it levelled out and we leapt up onto a pile of rocks wondering if we'd made it or not... Then we spotted the actual peak half a km away...

Oh. THERE it is!

 The last section was a very easy walk and we gleefully leapt up to the summit and plopped ourselves down to enjoy the view.

Looking out of the ACT

Mt Bimberi's poor "twin" Mt Murray.
Only 60m shorter, but who wants to climb the second tallest???

 We spent about an hour at the top. We ate lunch, took photos, checked out the view...












Did shots of absinthe...

Planked...

... but eventually it was time to head back down.

Chilling out at Oldfields Hut

We relied a lot more heavily on the piles of rocks on the way down, as no longer could we navigate by just heading upwards - every direction was downwards! It took us quite a bit of backtrackking and second guessing ourselves when encountering thick bush, but eventually we got back down to Murrays Gap; and after Kunnal had recovered from a brief shock after nearly stepping on a snake in our least favourite swamp, we were heading back to the car.



The view from Oldfields Hut

It had been about eight and a half hours of trekking by the time we got to Oldfields Hut (from where we'd taken our first photos of Mt Bimberi), so we just had to sit ourselves down for a rest. And a banana. There were foldaway chairs in the hut so that made it extra comfortable...

It felt like we spent about 5 mins at Oldfields Hut, but when we checked our watches, it turned out we'd been there for more like 20. We didn't care.

We stumbled up over the last hill and down the slope we'd found so steep to begin with. The last few km felt so long after they had passed so quickly earlier in the day, but eventually we got back into the car... Ready for our 4 hour drive back home.

I'm really looking forward to climbing the other mountains. Mt Bimberi was tough, but it was an incredible day, and this bucket list item is certainly shaping up to be one of my favourites. Thanks Kunnal!