Mt Oxford, Mountain House Car Park

20 January 2019

Our party of 5 set off to climb Mt Oxford from the Mountain House (Coopers Creek) car park at a favourable hour of 9am. Lucky for us the cool, windy conditions kept the sand flies away from the start of the riverside track.

We started off at a good pace, passing the many bee hives dotted amongst the overgrowth and settled into our usual groove. The track was good under-foot and offered an undulating start to warm us all up before we hit the climb to the tree line. Along the way we were greeted by bird song from a few bell birds, wax eyes, tom tits, wood pigeon and fantails. It was great to see and hear the birds and listen to the wind in the trees. We reached the tree line in 1hr45mins and were greeted by some gusty winds. After morning tea, we agreed as a collective group that we would walk up to the big tree for the view over the Canterbury plains (which is actually a small beech tree) and then head back down. Shane opted to continue at a fast pace to complete the loop and meet us at Ryde Falls.