We went to Bright with our friends to celebrate 3 birthdays. On Sunday, May 21 we visited Mt Buffalo National Park.
It was a cold and gloomy morning but by the time we arrived to Cresta Valley it started to clear up. The Horn was completely covered in fog / clouds so we decided to go to the Cathedral and Hump instead.
The trail started from a little car park on the Mt Buffalo Road. There were a toilet and a couple of picnic tables there. I was surprised to see some snow there:
The sign reads:
The Hump -1 hour return
This track provides access to the base Tof the Cathedral and a high lookout on the Hump. The action of ice and water over millions of years has broken away surrounding granite leaving the Cathedral as a massive solitary ‘tor’ and the Hump as an extensive boulder field.
Climbers can often be seen clinging to the rock. The 1km track climbs up to a saddle below the Cathedral. Continue left a further 500m steeply through thick Alpine Wattle wildfire scarred Snow Gums to the Hump.
A hut was constructed here in the early 1930’s to provide shelter for some of the first skiers on Mount Buffalo. Cresta Valley was later chosen as a better site with Australia’s first ski tow being installed there in 1936.
The track was quite steep with lots of steps.
Soon we reached the Cathedral – an impressive rock tor.
After about 400 meters we were on the Hump – 1695 meters above sea level.
The views were breath-taking.
The land below looked like another planet.
It was definitely worth it to climb up here.
Our descent was much faster. It took us about 1 hour to complete the walk.
After having a lunch we drove down to the Torpedo Rock:
After that we drove to the Mount Buffalo Chalet to enjoy fabulous views from the Bents Lookout and the Echo Point.
We finished our trip with a walk to the Underground River – 2.6 km return.
