Car camping at the foot of Mount Cole - A strange night at Richard's Camping Grounds

On what was intended to be a relaxing and uneventful weekend, James and I set out for Ditchfields Camping Grounds. We left at a decent hour, given that we weren't in a huge hurry and the drive up was peaceful and very relaxing.

  We arrived at Ditchfields around 11ish thinking that this was where were going to hang our hammocks, set up our camping chairs and have a few beers. When we arrived we were greeted with the ghastly sight of two large camper vans parked illegally on the grassy space reserved for tents, with one of the bollards removed where they had driven their camper vans onto the grassy area. We were also greeted with the sight and sound of around five motorbikes speeding around the area with the riders of varying ages, although it is worth noting that the majority were children. We decided to simply leave it be, although at one point we did contemplate calling Park's Victoria and alerting the ranger.

  We continued driving along the track to Mugwamp Hut, which was admittedly a very unsteady drive in James' car, though the end product was worth it. The site was very small, with a single firepit, a toilet, three gum trees in a very convenient formation for our hammocks and a quaint little hut. James and I both agreed that the hut looked like something out of Deliverance and a group of hillbillies were going to jump out at any moment. With that in mind, we parked the car near the stream and decided to take a bit of a midday stroll around the trails surrounding it, given our previous failed attempt at making it to the summit, we wanted to at least see if we could find the lookout to Mt Buangor. Whilst we did not find the official lookout, we found a nice little clearing overlooking Mt Buangor, stopped for a few minutes and made our way back to set up camp for the night.

 

Squeal like a pig!!

  When we arrived back at the camping site and were going to unload our gear, we were greeted by the aforementioned hillbillies. Well, not quite, we were greeted by a middle-aged woman who was traveling with two teenage boys. We figured that the last thing we wanted was for said teenage boys having to put up with our drinking, screaming and obnoxiousness and decided to move on.

  It was at this point that we decided to simply head down to Richard's and try our luck at the very base of the mountain. We figured it would be less cold, and hopefully there would be less people down there. We drove down the same way that we had came, even briefly stopping once more at Ditchfields to see if it was a viable option, but eventually decided on Richard's. We felt a brief sting of disappointment when we arrived at Richard's as we saw that there were already alot of cars parked at the site, however when we got out of the car we found that the camp site was completely deserted. We did a little hop, skip and jump then proceeded to unpack our gear, hang our hammocks and build a fire.

  We had just built the fire, opened a can of cider and were roasting marshmallows when I heard a voice and some rustling behind me. It was a young lady, most likely in her early twenties, who had just walked down the hill from the toilets. She was friendly and began talking to us, we even shared our marshmallows with her. She mentioned that she was backpacking from Tasmania and staying at the camp site out of her van. We shared some pleasant conversation and some marshmallows, after some time she then got up, got in her van, drove off for a while and we did not see her again for the night. The reason I mention her visit is because she had completed the Beeripmo walk in a single day. This is the very same walk that James and I had failed to complete two months prior over a two day period. To put it in comparison, she had completed twice the walk, in half the time. Whilst it put a huge dint in my ego, my hat goes off to her.

  The rest of the night was fairly uneventful, we cooked a stew in the dutch oven, ate, drank and froze our asses off. That is to say, it was uneventful until around midnight when a car pulled up and shone it's lights directly on us. I swear I jumped a country mile and instinctively reached for my bowie knife, it's probably a good thing that I had put all of my blades away at that point as it was simply a young couple who had left home late. We gave them a hand putting up their tent and invited them to stay up and have a drink with us, however they pretty much went straight to bed.

Probably a good thing that I put it away.

  James and I were also getting tired and decided to go to retire to our hammocks shortly after. Well, that
 is to say that I retired to my hammock and James decided to be a pussy and sleep in his car. In hindsight, I probably should have just taken his hammock as mine was rigged very poorly and I ended up on the ground, I'm just glad that I pack sleeping pad.

  Before we left in the morning I spoke with the young couple who had arrived late the night before and saw that they were foraging for something. Whilst I don't mind finding and eating wild edibles, there is a point where I draw the line and wild fungi is pretty much it. When I asked them what they were doing, they told me that they were collecting magic mushrooms, that these particular mushrooms cause you to hallucinate and that Richard's is one of the best spots to find them. A strange ending to a strange weekend.

If you read about a young couple from Bendigo who died at the base of Mt Cole from an unknown poison, this is what they ate