Allen VK3ARH had been planning a trip to try and pick up The Governor and VK3/VE-075 (an unactivated peak), so Tony VK3CAT and I decided to join him. The original plan was to do a through hike from 8 mile gap on Brocks Rd to EaglesPeaks, The Governor and VK3/VE-075. However, the uncertainty of the scrub thickness suggested that this would have been a somewhat risky undertaking. The revised plan was to activate Eagles Peaks and continue on to the Governor and then return by the same route, camping in the saddle below it overnight. It didn’t quite go as planned…
8 Mile Flat camp ground
I joined Tony and Allen on the Friday night at 8 Mile Flat camp ground where we spent a comfortable night. 8 Mile Flat is a great little camping spot right on the Howqua river, but has quite a steep access road with a small creek crossing which means it’s really only suitable for 4WDs. The flat itself is wide open, grassy and surrounded by tall eucalypts. We were on the road early Sat morning for a fairly quick drive up to 8 Mile Gap (actually no where near 8 Mile Flat!)
Tony and Allen toiling up the trail
Some of the sections of the track traversed quite narrow sections of ridge
We left the cars in the parking area and loaded up our 20kg+ packs (as we were each carrying about 7 litres of water – there’s no water where we were headed). The track up to Eagles Peaks is well marked and largely clear of obstacles. It is quite steep at the beginning and end and undulating between.
The loose scree slope requires care
The climb up the last section covers a steep scree slope where you need to be careful of your footing to avoid slipping over. It took just short of 2 hours to climb to the summit with the heavy packs. The weather was almost perfect – cool, but partly sunny and only a light breeze. On reaching the summit though, the breeze picked up and necessitated jackets to keep warm once we stopped moving.
Allen and I operating at Eagles Peaks (Photo: Tony)
The station was set up quickly with three of us working together and we were soon on the air on CW on 40m. It didn’t take long for Tony and Allen to qualify it while I worked up the courage to take over the paddles. They weren’t going to let me use the mic until I’d qualified it on CW! So I dialed the speed down and soon managed to work the requisite four contacts. After that I was allowed the mic to complete the activation 
Packing up we headed on towards the far side of Eagles Peaks and the saddle leading to The Governor. The track became very indistinct past the summit, but the direction was easy to find. There were sections of thick bush intermingled with increasingly steep ledges and steps as we headed off the summit. It was fairly slow going.
We then came to a section that was essentially all small cliffs (maybe 2-3m high). We paused and took our packs off to look for ways past this obstacle and in the process Allen’s pack decided to test out the “jump straight off the cliff” approach! Luckily it was stopped by small trees, so didn’t go any further. Eventually Tony found a way to clamber down and managed to retrieve Allen’s pack.
We considered how long it had taken us thus far and the fact that climbing up those cliffs with packs on on the way back was going to be a dicey proposition and decided to call it a day. If we had had ropes and harnesses, it wouldn’t have been too hard to get down, but that would have been even more gear to carry!
The Governor – so near, yet so far! (Photo: Tony)
We headed back up to Eagles Peaks (there’s no practical way around the sides due to even larger cliffs), stopping for lunch in a small clearing. The return from Eagles Peaks to the cars was quicker than the way up at only 1:20, but you still have to be very careful on the scree slope to avoid slips.
The track to Eagle’s Peaks
The return from Eagles Peaks
Back at the cars by mid afternoon, I decided to head back to Melbourne activating VK3/VE-123 (my first SOTA summit worth less than 8 points!) on the way out whilst Allen and Tony headed for Mt Sunday (they were planning a couple more days – see Tony’s blog for the write up here).
The end of the antenna strung along the track at VE-123
VE-123 is the highest point on Three Chains Track which starts across the road from the beginning of the Mt Timbertop walking track on Howqua Track. Three Trains Track is definitely high clearance 4WD only with some steep rocky sections, spoon drains and deep ruts.
There is a radio repeater (belonging to Geelong Grammar Timbertop campus) at the summit, but it didn’t cause any interference problems. My arrival at the summit was well timed as I saw a spot for Andrew VK3JBL over on Federation Range on 2m FM.
The view from VE-123 looking over to The Paps in the far distance
I was able to have a very clear contact with my rubber ducky antenna thanks to his beam. I was also able to work Tony and Allen on Mt Sunday on DMR simplex using just a rubber ducky antenna at each end. Having almost qualified it on 2m, I set up the KX2 and worked five chasers on 80m and one ZL chaser on 40m before calling it a day.
I was safely back on the bitumen before dark and stopped in Mansfield for a tasty Felafal wrap from the Kebab restaurant before the long drive back to Melbourne. Whilst we didn’t achieve the original plan, it was a great day in the hills and two new summits for me.
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