Perry's Blog

I'm alive! I'm recovered! But I decided not to eat the full breakfast, but just went for a wee bit of tea and toast. I've got a pocket full of lollies just in case I run out of energy though...

9:05am Leave Camp

Perry wrote:

Yesterday starting out, the bush smelt hot - we knew it was going to be a warm day (the girl at Somersby Store said 33). Funny, the other hot day (#4), the bush didn't smell like that at all.

Pass a nice little stream so we fill a couple of water bottles and treat them so that we'll have some water to drink shortly.

We plan to have a wash at a spot we remember from the last time we walked through here, it's where the track crosses the river in an open rocky area.

Sandi wrote:

Head off on Day Seven after today's [scriptural] reading being a "fear not" one. Made me wonder what to expect and sure enough a large black snake at the river where we washed. Was very reassured by having that word. Yesterday incidentally was on St Luke's Day and last night I asked him to pray for Perry, so was very thankful to him and Jesus when P despite a not brilliant sleep woke quite chipper today.

9:50am Wash
Walking onto the rocky platform and to where we thought we may wash we disturbed a large red-bellied black snake that scurried off to its hole 10 metres away; but we were too desperate to worry about the proximity of the snake and undress to wash.

The sun is warm on the skin, and the cool soapy water is very refreshing.

We decide to wash our clothes in soap as well. They are really beginning to stink and all the rinsing still leaves them looking stained.

What clothes didn't dry were dried on the outside of our packs as we walked. Made us feel like walking clothes lines. It was just luxury to feel clean again!

Just a couple of minutes up the track is an old dam.

The track heads up the hill from where we washed toward Somersby Falls, where we always knew we could get water from a tap if we needed.

The track in spots was fairly degraded.

We decided we didn't need to walk up into Somersby Falls to get water from a tap, collecting it from creeks was working quite fine for the moment.

Sandi wrote:

Thrilled at how though hard and unrelenting the walk from the dam to the next campsite after Somersby Falls turn off was, we really came up puffing, but in good form.

After the turn-off the track heads down into a creek where we were to collect some more water and have morning tea.

Morning Tea

The water is cool and refreshing, the day is certainly hot.

Leave 11:47am
Just up the track from the creek is Camp Site 3.9, which we never intended stopping at:

The track skirts some agricultural and mining land. Apparently the sand mining is very contentious in the area, as there were many signs and slogans fixed to trees along the roads. The mining activity is certainly obvious from the aerial photos, but not so much from the track.

Stumbled across another beautifully cooling creek along the way and washed our faces. Difficult not to just sit down in the cool shade for a much longer time.

After this wash it was the last push up to Somersby Store. I was relying on lolly power for a lot of it, after not having any breakfast to speak of.

The final 2-3kms along the road was pretty grueling in the hot sun. We tried to walk in the shade when possible, but often the trees were few and far between.

Sandi was keen to get a hitch, I wasn't so sure. I didn't know how you could say you did the Great North Walk in a car?

2:01pm Somersby Store

We were really glowing when we walked into Somersby Store, probably smelt pretty good too!

Perry wrote:

Power walked all the way here - and got here ahead of schedule!! And walked off another map.

Had lots of cold drinks and vege burger/salad roll: yummy fresh food.

Started with a cold drink, got some fresh food and then got some more drinks.

Perry wrote:

At the Store, an old fellow came in for a chat - wanted to enquire where we were walking to/from and talk about his love of Aboriginal sites. He told us we'd walk over a sharpening site on Kilkenny Road with 320 grooves!

Felt like we'd been here for a long time by time we came to leave. We didn't fill our bottles with water as the map has a creek near Palm Gully where we should be able to get water before the 100 or so metres to the campsite.

Leave 3:10pm
The track follows the road for 3kms besides small farms and orchards.

We walked over the Aboriginal site, careful not to walk on any of the grooves, but that was somewhat difficult. I guess they used to use that area because the rock was wet from the creek?

The road heads up the hill and then the track starts proper, turning into the bush.

Perry wrote:

Had the strangest feeling walking off Kilkenny Road and into the bush again after a couple of hours on the road and in the store: felt like coming home again. Home in the sense of feeling relaxed, resident almost. Nice. Odd.

Sandi wrote:

Wonderful Gymea Lillies garden then gully with creek, very cool and dark and like wise after Somersby Store the long walk down to similar cold, dark gully with palms. Spectacular fig as we came up. Immense and very buttressed.

4:20pm Palm Grove

Perry wrote:

Water worked yesterday as well, filled in Palm Gully, wonderfully cool and clear - had a hard walk out with full packs, but we seemed to manage better than before. The whole day I think we walked at a good pace. Thankfully the road section of 2-3kms didn't wreck the feet too much.

Had to leave Palm Grove with a little regret for the cool and the stiff climb ahead of us.

Seat Disappointment: we got to the top of the climb and Sandi was very disappointed that the campsite was not there. Maybe it was a mistake to encourage her with the thought that the campsite was just at the top of the hill?

Walking down the track a few minutes we came upon the Campsite, somewhat perched on the ridge. There's a metal fireplace and a seat (for sore legs), but not a lot of flat ground to pitch a tent.

4:55pm Campsite

Our section planning seems to be working OK: we're quite keen to spend the hottest part of the day out of the sun, and get to camp just in time to set up and cook before night falls.

Sandi wrote:

Yet more new flowers today, what a joy.

Perry wrote:

The bread rolls are good: good squashed or non-squashed!

And that's the end of Day Seven, 14 kms at 2.5 km/h. We're 87 kms into the walk now (just over half).

Tomorrow we'll have a shorter day as the times into Yarramalong don't really work out very well.