Five of us turned up at Church Corner and although the leader was unable to join us on the day, we set off with a map and enthusiasm. We stayed true to the original plans, parking by the old Avoca railway halt and then walking up to and along the incline to the remains of the mining machinery. As we pottered around and had our first early lunch we spotted a cavalcade of 4WD vehicles away in the distance. We were to see them again!

I managed to find a dropped muesli bar – obviously that day or the previous – and wondered if it was our group. Stewart was doing a great job of leading and managed to get us down to the river through a bit of a tree fall bush bash. Looking back up the way we had come down it was difficult to see how, but we had followed a good animal trail.

A few utes were parked at the start of the gorge so we assumed there were hunters up river towards Broken River Hut. We wondered again where the other PTC group were.