Close to home there’s Nail Can Hill and the hills around Baranduda.

There’s the historic gorge area on the outskirts of Beechworth and the ironbark forests of Chiltern State Park.

Further afield is Mount Buffalo with its magnificent granite formations; the barren expanses of the Bogong High Plains; the untamed wilderness of Kosciusko National Park; and the rugged peaks around Mount Hotham.

Many of our club walks take place in the nearby mountains and, for me, a walk in the mountains is like an adventure into another land; a land where damp mist-filled valleys could very well conceal trolls and ogres; a land where the intense and overwhelming silence is occasionally broken by the caw of black birds wheeling ominously overhead; a land of verdant untouched forests and gurgling mountain streams where ancient spirits practise long-forgotten rituals; a place where it seems as if the traveller has brushed aside an invisible curtain and stepped into another time and another dimension far removed from the humdrum of suburbia.

Then there are the unique characters we sometimes encounter as we wander these landscapes.

These fellow travellers are often the guardians of wise and wonderful stories; they sometimes possess skills and powers that constantly surprise and delight us; they will often encourage us not to succumb to the inglorious defeat wrought upon bodies wearied by the burdens we shoulder; and they sometimes carry with them a magic elixir which, at the end of the day, will lift our spirits and cast away our discomforts.

A recent nine day trek from Taylor’s Crossing near Benambra to Dead House Gap near Thredbo village was just such an adventure; a journey filled with much wonder and beauty and completed in the company of some quite special and unique characters. 

Your adventure doesn’t have to last for nine days; it can be as short as a couple of hours. Unlike contact sports, bushwalking is by nature a social activity as well as a physical one.

There are people from all walks of life in our club and every outing provides an opportunity to socialise, meet new people and make new friends.

Many walks conclude with a visit to a bakery or a coffee shop to relive and remark on the grand adventure just completed!