I was now in territory that hadn’t seen white or European people at the time of Mitchell’s expedition. He had gone against his orders to return home after confirming beliefs about Australia’s Murray-Darling River system and had continued south-west following a trail of mountains and hills. I’d aimed my bike at Kara Kara or the St Arnaud Range to discover it is one of south-east Australia’s most unique forests, relatively untouched and the box-ironbark forest is much the same as it was when Mitchell passed through. At this point, I could see the Grampians on the horizon and immediately headed for them. The strange saw-tooth like series of peaks forms one of the states mountainous highlights, in many ways more so than the Victorian Alps, rising out of the flat land, as many peaks do in this part of the world.
Rock hopping. Mt Canobolas become my first point of reference and lead me to realise how the early explorers navigated.
From Mt Canobolas I found my way to Mt Nangar, clearly seeing what Mitchell had seen so long ago.