This walk started near the Mt Loch car park just North-East of Mt Hotham, Victoria. The weather was a few scattered clouds but that changed later in the day. We walked from the car park to the turnoff to the Huts where we dropped our packs for a short side trip to Mt Loch. Descending from Mount Loch I encountered a small grey snake crossing the path (no trouble).

Returning to our packs we headed for Derrick Hut. Checked out the hut and found to be in good condition, we proceeded to Dibbin's Hut. The track soon dropped sharply and from then on it was hard going. After a while we reached Dibbin's Hut and had lunch. We met a couple of hikers when leaving the hut.

The track then followed Cobungra river for a while and then left the river and headed up a rise. From here we crossed two creeks and then the track vanished, oh no. The track was supposed to follow Swindlers Creek (last one we crossed) down to Cobungra River. After the 2003 bushfires most of the trees were affected and had resprouted from the bottom which then obliterated the track from view.

We started to push our way along the creek and found it tough going so we decided to move up the hill but it was just as bad. At around 5pm Robert said "Look over your shoulder" and it was then I realised that the weather was taking a turn for the worse. A little while later we could hear thunder and not long after that the heavens opened. Dropping our packs we quickly go our wet weather jackets out and put them on even though we were already wet to the bone.

Now we were up the side of a hill and in a thunderstorm, I was counting the time between the lightening and thunder to see how far away it really was, it got to within a mile. We then had to decide should we go to the top of the ridge and camp or make our way to the creek and look for a spot. As we were both low on water we decided to head for the creek where we pitched our tent and make some hot soup and hot chocolate before getting out of our wet gear and jumping into our sleeping bags for a well earned sleep.

The following morning was fine and we made breakfast then packed all our gear away and decided to head up to the ridge (3 hours). We rang our wife's and advised them that we would be home very late. After lunch we followed the ridge line to the end and came across another creek, which by our reckoning should be Murphy Creek. We followed this down stream and came a crossing near the junction of Cobungra River, back on track again.

Following the track we walked through the river flats of the river, we crossed a small creek and as we were coming up to another Robert yelled " *&$%* Look out". My first reaction was to jump which in hindsight probably helped the situation. I think he then yelled "SNAKE" and whilst jumping up and down I looked at my thigh and saw the body of a snake wrapped my thigh and calf. What do you do in this situation? Act in a clam and rational way, not me I just did the Highland Fling and managed to flick it off my leg where it landed in grass about 3-4 metres away and slithered out of this mad humans way. On talking to Robert he told me he saw it standing up about 1.2 metres (4ft) with its head and neck flat and mouth open ready to strike.

After the old ticker settled we slowly moved past where the snake had gone and went on our way. After a short while we found a 4WD track which would lead us to the road. 4klm took us 2 hours to do.

This walk was one of the hardest, scariest and physically draining that we have done but it was another one finished and is now tucked away in our memory to tell other hikers we meet on our hikes.