Mt.Crawford-Freemans Hut-Whispering walls-rocky paddock 29-30th May 2010

Ever since my last visit to this amazing hut with Jono & Alex in the middle of the night, i have fall in love with this hut, haha. Really long to go back to have a look properly and stay for a night or two. And since Jono was also keen to go back especially since he have never stay overnight there before, so we thought let’s give it a go and here we go, drove all the way up to Mt.Crawford with our simple overnight backpack. According to Jono, of all the times he’s been there before, the hut was always empty and that really tempted us to get a 6-pack beers, unfortunately we couldn’t find any pubs or cellars open along the way.

The night was cold, well it’s late Autumn, of course we were expecting freezing cold nights. Parked our car, walked the 2kms (is that right Jono??) and broke some branch of a dead tree for our fire in the hut. I was really anticipating the coziness and warmth when we got into the hut and get the fire going on, brew our hot drink, snack and zzz, wake up to a brilliant morning!!!

Yet, this time we were wrong, there’s light coming out of the window of the hut. And as to our expectation, there’s someone in there before us which kinda ruined our party, haha. Worse still they were already in bed!!! So we kinda just rocked up and made lots of noise to get ourselves changed and ready to bed as well. Unfortunately, we couldn’t feel the warm coming from the fire because we were in the other 6 bunk room, the 2 that came before us took the good spot!!! haha, the 2 were snoring in a rhythm that sync with each other, omg!!! First time i heard that kind of snoring!!! Pretty annoying of course,  oh well….Tried quite hard to shut my eyes and get some decent sleep.

Woke up to a cold hazy morning!!! Which is pretty amazing, i felt like i’m a shepherd waking to the first light of the day and getting ready to get into the farm to work because the hut is surrounded by greenery, gum trees and small slopes!!!! Unfortunately, there’s no sheep or cows anywhere in sight, haha. They were all busy grazing on some of the faraway slopes.

There’s the toilet at the side of the hut…




The kitchen at the back of the hut which is to my surprise pretty nicely built and sheltered!!!









These little little things brought in and left by people who have stay overnight in the hut really make the place like a hiker/traveler's stopover place, and the burn marks and cracks on the walls really make the hut so pretty!!! Very countryside feel for me!!!! LOVE IT!!!!





I love the fire in a stony+wooden huts!!!! I just love to watch them!! the crackling sound of the burning wood!!!

  
Some of the explanation of the hut rules, and brief history of this hut. It’s built by volunteers (just like most of the huts around Australia) and meant for a brief stopover for people on the famous Heysen trail.


Some of my attempts to capture the essence of a stone hut!!!! Love the feeling it gave me, hehe. The place may look bit untidy, old, dusty…etc, but that’s what make it so attractive and that’s how a hut should look like, haha. There’s a broom in side the hut for people to clean out before they leave :)
 

The map of barossa  and a log book for people to leave their memorable comments :)
 

Jono & me with the 2 guys, we had a good chat haha, nice people, always a great thing to meet hikers along trips, exchange of stories…etc. Apparently, they made it in the rain via a longer way from Barossa compared to us, they were going to explore the surroundings the next day. That’s more like it, exploration with freedom, haha.
 
 


A few more snaps before we left the hut, i missed it now!!!!




A water tank for herds?? must be. A big tree hollow along the way in/out.

 

This is the fence that we have to climb through each time to get in, it’s actually a firetrack, hehe.




Next Jono kindly brought me to visit this famous dam!!! It’s not famous for the any views, yet somehow the architecture of the dam that draws people to visit it!!! I heard and read about the dam. But to actually experience the wonder of it was really amazing!!!
 

This place has been called the whispering walls!!! Due to it’s precise concave dam wall that somehow magically can allow sounds to travel from one end of the wall to the other end efficiently!!!! Be reminded that when it was built, there’s no idea this could happened back then!!!! It was later found out though i can’t remember when and who. 

Really amazing, you can speak to your fren or partner on the other end without a slight big delay of transmission!!! And it’s loud and clear!!!! haha, everyone that tried it was amazed, especially for kids it was fun!!! 
 

Next Jono, brought me the rocky paddock, once a paddock for horses, but now it become a campsite, this place is dotted with rocks which makes it unique though you have to get in via dirt road that pass through the second valley pine trees!!!


Next, drove all the way to Tungkillo to Jono’s plot of land, haha!!! Then back home :) A nice trip!!!!