As we awoke on Sunday morning, it became apparent that setting off to undertake the most exposed (and spectacular) ridge on the AAWT was not a good idea. Overnight the weather had deteriorated incredibly. We were greeted with very strong winds and driving rain. It was obvious a day in the tent was on the cards for me. I assisted the crew in packing up and cooking brekky, whilst we planned their hasty retreat. They were packed and gone by 9, a solid effort given the weather. It was great to have all of their company and again I could not have completed this trip without support like it, so thanks gents and Sal. And Matty you were missed!

Needless to say the rest of yesterday involved reading and staying warm, interspersed with eating. Thankfully, this morning I was greeted with a day befitting the scenery I was about to feast on. For any bushwalker (minor disclaimer- who is ok with heights a extreme exposure) who has not walked the Crosscut Saw- you absolutely must! This ridge high above the surrounding country has a series of seven tooth-like jagged, rocky knolls; which, when viewed from the side, looks unmistakably like a saw blade. The ridge plunges for hundreds of metres on both sides and the country is seriously steep. Apart for the development you can see on the nearby Mt Buller you could be days from anywhere. The walking is challenging, some more cliff down-scrambles coming off Mt Spec and steep and rocky climbing. But it is the exposure that makes this walk so incredible. In your peripheral on both sides of the ridge you are aware of the ground falling away and the valley floor up to a kilometre vertically below. Incredible. Although I had walked part of this day before, I could do it another hundred times and still be wowed!

After a quick lunch I continued up Mt Howitt and across the ironically named Big Hill to Mt Magdala, the home of Hell's Window. A famous break in the cliff that leads to some incredibly steep country. Having walked over Magdala before I was interested in taking the track that sidled around the peak, directly under the imposing cliffs of the summit. I was rewarded with a breathtaking walk, perched on a contour line I traversed the steeps of this beautiful mountain. As I finished the traverse I ran into a crew of four other walkers one of whom was doing the section of the AAWT I was on in reverse over seven days. We chatted for a while and were interrupted by a group of at least twenty horses with riders on some sort of tour. The final horse, rather clasically, carrying a lady chatting away on her mobile phone!! One of the group I'd been talking to and I both managed to whip out our cameras to which we heard her say "there's all these people taking photos of me"...priceless.

I followed the horse train up the final rise to my campsite for the night at the foot of King Billy 1 (of which there are two!). What a day! That was truly spectacular, some of the grandest scenery to date. The area deserves it's popularity