So for 9 months now I have been eating right and going to the gym 2-3 times a week plus as part of my hike training I have been cycling to work 2 or 3 times a week. I consider myself in peak physical condition at the moment. Even in high school when I was playing lots of sport etc I wasn't in this condition.
But let me say, all this preparation still didn't prepare me for this weekend.
Thursday night, I picked up Dad from the Melbourne airport and we drove direct to Rawson, pulled into the local park and put the back seats of the Wrangler down. Surprisingly good 5 hours or so of sleep.
Worked out well as toilet facilities, a covered rotunda to make breakfast while it rained a little and a chance to repack Dads bag as he had brought a couple of his own things, sleeping bag etc. were all the perfect start to the morning. We arrived in Walhalla at 8am, dry, well fed and with well balanced packs. This may not have been the case if we had camped out in Walhalla thursday night.
The first 3 hours of the hike is a relatively easy walk along a dirt walking path formerly occupied by a train track for the mining rushed of the mid 1900's. We started this stretch at about 489 metres above sea level and found we slowly dropped to approximately 400m by the time we arrived at Poverty Point Bridge.
Although this was not a difficult 9 kilometres it was an awaking for my whole body. It has been 13 years or more since I have had a pack on my back so this was a real awakening as I though in my condition it would have been easier. It was not.
From Poverty Point Bridge, which crosses 48metres above the Thomson River, we began to follow the trail which now followed the Thomson River north west. We spent about 30 minutes bush bashing thru medium density scrub with the 50 plus metres drop down to the Thomson right at the edge of the trail. This side of the river was also in direct sun, at 27 degrees and high humidity we could have rented ourselves out to stand on a golf course and spin to water their grass.
Then starts the climb, for the next 2 hours we walked up hill fighting the hot sun from 400m to 578m above sea level over a 2.8 km distance. Unfortunately we forgot to stop and have lunch so buy the time we reached the top of the climb at the Thomson Valley Rd, we had lost 5 kilo each, had run out of energy, our bodies were screaming to just shoot each other so the pain would stop and our packs were still full weight (about 22 kilos).
Road side lunch fixed some of the issues, about 60grams of vacuum sealed Pepperini Salami each and the same portion of orange cheddar cheese with crackers gave us the energy to put the packs back on.
The next 1.5 hours were a slow down hill to about 400m over 1.8km of which .8km was bush bashing and spider web eating! I was at the front, I think Dad avoided the webs.
Welcome to O'Shea's Mill Camp. We decided this would be enough for today and to make this our night 1 camp. We also decided to not go further as the next day would take us from 400m to 1250m. We were not ready for that. So we no longer would hike on Sunday but return home Saturday night so Dad could see the grandchildren.
We set up tent, ate our dehydrated vegetable, chicken and rice soup/stew and went to bed at 7pm even though we still had another hour or so of light. Beep Beep Beep. I had phone reception..... the message reads as follows.
FROM MEEGS - Severe thunderstorm warning, hail, lightning, flooding just issued for your area - take care LOVE YOU.
Did I mention we had set the tent up about 5 metres from a healthy creek, surrounded by massive gum trees in an area where that the entire walk in was littered with warning signs that trees fall easy due to fire damage a couple years ago and wash outs & rock slides are common. Sweat dreams!
About 4 hours of our evening, of which we slept through most of it only waking when the thunder moved us, was filled with rain heavy enough that we could see about 1 inch of water rushing through the vestibule of our tent. The sky was a light show which shook us at will, the real problem was we were never really sure whether that crack was thunder or a 100m tree about to crush us into a distant memory.
We woke up, ate breakfast and started back out which of course is just a reverse of the day before which means the first 1.5 hours was a slow up hill bush bash back to Thomson Valley Road, then a much quicker down hill to Poverty Point Bridge and a hard slog back to the car at Walhalla.
Did I mention it was still raining fairly heavy, the scrub was soaked and because of this so were we. We remembered lunch this time and when we stopped I decided to ring out some of my clothes to reduce my weight. Easily lost 100ml of water by doing so.Arriving at Walhalla, we had a surprise in store which reminded me that this is all worth it and I can't wait for November 2012. As we arrived at the start of the trail in Walhalla we met Stuart Wheeler & Michael Dawson....... they were starting the End to End from Walhalla to Canberra today! Awesome. They will send me their track notes upon their return and I was so energised to see someone else start their journey. Good luck and enjoy your trip guys.
Check out the rig Stuart will use to carry his gear. Interesting, will research this trolley more and get his opinion of it when he returns.
Have fun to Paul Bender who just emailed me he is doing the same trail section today
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