Just to give everyone some insight into how I prepare for these blog posts. I first get my iphoto account open to the photos of the days I'm about to write about and open up John Chapman's Trail book to the appropriate maps. I then ready my journal. I just laughed myself silly ready todays journal entries. Sometime sin my journal I would just write pearls of wisdom that have come to me throughout the day or week. Todays journal pearl is such;
Just cause I don't know where I am doesn't mean I'm lost!
So this morning on Johnnies Top it is raining but at least the howling winds have calmed down. The walk down off Johnnies Top is all 4X4 tracks which are easy to follow. You then climb down to Morass Creek. A series of river crossing which are a little challenging when the water level is up, it turns a couple of crossings into one marshy boggy water crossing. Lovely the scenery through this area though with a great waterfall and overall great landscapes.
Once I have climbed back out you eventually come out at the Fraser Tablelands. This is some of the most beautiful farmland I have ever seen. Walking the roads around the tablelands isn't the most exciting but you can find plenty of little pearls to entertain your mind. See below photo!
So its about 3:30pm when I arrive at the Mitta Mitta River, Taylor Crossing. If the weather was warm I would have probably kept going but I am soaked through and its wet out so I am going to stay here and drink up, and eat through the masses of food I'm still carrying. On arrival I meet Duncan, Merv and John, 3 retired friends who are doing the AAWT also but in the opposite direct. I will note also that this represents the 1/2 way for both groups. The North bound group are on day 21 where as Me, myself and I are travelling south and this is day 12.
This also is the first opportunity I have had on the trail for someone to take a photo of me, no selfies tonight!
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Face starting to thin out and the beard is starting to show
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Whilst the sun tried to shine though for most of the afternoon it could stop the hourly 15minutes of rain that would stop any drying progress that was achieved. The fence in the background of the above photo had all the clothes draped across it. It would rain and we would all scatter to get the gear out of the rain, and then repeat....all afternoon. I had about 2 litres of water since arriving at camp and had 2 dinners as well as plenty of snack.
I also decided to attend to my feet as we had a fire which meant I could burn the old smelly strapping. I noticed that my right foot large toes had started to harden up behind the broken toes nail. In the past I could just cut the toe nail and the dry fluid and be all good, this time was different. I set up my first aid gear on the concrete floor of the toilet block during one of the rain showers. I cut the toes nail....... SPLAT. The fluid behind the nail had not hardened so instead it blows up all over the toilet block. i can see behind my toe nail, its just empty space. I take out my medical scissors and can place then behind the nail it is such a large gap. I am definitely going to lose this toe nail. I taped it in place for now and completed the rest of the dressings and then went to bed as I was a little freaked out in general at the condition of my foot. The toes issue as well as the general smell of the rotting skin on the bottom of my foot.
Day 13 - This morning I set out as usual at about 6am hoping to get some good km's in. I really wanted to do a massive day as the guilt of stopping at 3:30pm was getting to me again. I was lucky, I was able to pack up my gear before it started to rain heavily. None the less all my clothes, both what I am wearing and whats in my bag are wet or at least damp.
One of the really big problems with walking by yourself is that if my eyes miss it there isn't some one else's pair to catch it. So I am pretty stead in my bush walking pace at about 4.5 - 5kms per hour. So the problem when I hit a road is that I just put my head down a move. I really don't want to walk these roads, their is no adventure in them. Of course the road pace is faster, so this morning as with a couple other times through out the whole trek I decide to walk about 3kms past my turn off junction! I kick myself as I already feel I am behind because I stopped yesterday pretty early.
As far as the junction goes, its an intersection of Four Mile Creek Track and Eight Mile loop track so a pretty large intersection. Even when I have realised my error and doubled back, I still cannot find the trail. i have a little walk down Kelly's Track for the optional junction point but can't find that one either. So back to the main intersection....after looking high and low for an entry point into the scrub I just crack it and bash my way into the bush. About 5 metres into the scrub is a perfectly manicured trail to follow. It was just the entry that had overgrown. So I follow Eight Mile Loop track along the ridge and then down to Gill creek. This was all pretty manageable with no surprises.
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| Gill Creek crossing |
So once I have crossed Gill Creek all I can think about is that at the top of this long climb in Omeo Highway and my next food drop. Its still raining and miserable out and its about 4:30pm when i reach the Omeo highway. I'm sure it has dropped 5 degrees in the last hour. As you can see I'm stoked to reach the road and the drop. I am soaked, I only have jocks and undershirt on under my rain gear. I just don't want to stop to throw more damp clothes on so I just get to the drop and rip it open.
Its starting rain pretty heavy as I open the drums containing my food drop so again I just pull out the black garbage bag liner and shove it in the pack, top up my fuel and water and as I do so a 4X4 comes down the Mt Willis track where I'm about to hike up. He asks if I'm okay. I thought i gotta get his attention with my answer so he gives me a chop out here. My answer " yeah just getting my food out of the ground!" That was enough to get him out of the truck. We spoke about the AAWT and not only did Peter give me a ride about 3kms up to the track junction be he took my buckets as well. What was priceless was his local knowledge about the general Sunnyside area. As we drove he pointed out historical stuff like the cricket oval. I was so cold that as I was talking with him my voice was shaking and my teeth were trying to chatter. So I hop out at the junction, take a photo for the blog so I can give credit and grab my pack off the back of the truck.
OH NO! Can't believe it. I rushed around so much to not hold Peter up that I forgot my walking poles at the food drop. Peter then turn into a knight in shining armour and drives the truck back down and lets me grab my poles, then drives me back up again! Legend.
So freezing cold I climb up to Mt Willis over the next hour or so in freezing conditions and rain. I none the less took a second to get a couple summit shots. And let me tell you how happy I am to finally see Mt Willis hut.
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| Mt Willis hut |
So I get inside and i'm absolutely shattered. usually in the huts the last person to have stayed would leave some dry timber for the next group. There was no timber for the fire inside this hut. I can tell you I looked up who was the last to sign the hut log book....... I won't say who it was as I know them. So for 45 minutes I sat in wet clothes in a freezing cold hut trying to dry out fire wood that I had to source from outside in the rain. I burnt the pages out of John Chapman's book, letters from home pages out of my journal. It took everything I had to get this thing started. Finally I did and was able to set up a series of clothes lines across the room to dry all my gear out.
I took no photos tonight, it was all business.
I definitely considered this hut stay an emergency. I ate well as I had way more food than I needed once again. Also in this bucket were new letters from the family so by the time I was jumping into bed I was feeling pretty encouraged by my family, but I was feeling pretty ill. The cold and the massive effort to get here has really taken a notch out of me. Tomorrow is going to also be a relatively short day if I decide to proceed as I would only go to Cleve Cole hut which is about 12kms. At this stage, I think I am going to have to take a rest day. Not feeling good.
