Perry's Blog

Perry wrote:

Woke this morning to cool and overcast. The girl at the Store said it was to turn cooler, and I guess it's expected after a hot day. All night though it felt hot and clammy in the sleeping bag and cold out.

Getting your boots off at night is the most wonderful feeling, though your feet still ache, but funnily enough, putting them back on in the morning is very comforting!

This campsite has been the quietest so far: wonderful! We can only just hear the rumble of the expressway (we [mankind] make a lot of noise!!)

Perry wrote:

We've decided to try and go to the second campsite today, which will make the following day easier and should get us into Yarramalong around midday. That will then give us the opportunity, if we can catch a hitch over the 12 km of road, we'll make up a day. Which means we'll finish on a Saturday, or alternatively, we could do the hardest day (11) in two days. It will depend on how we're feeling.

We're just about out of insect repellant - the sand flies have generally been bad. Crosslands always was, above Berowra Waters they hunted in swarms, Mooney Mooney was average and they're even here. Somersby Store had run out, the girl saying with a wry smile, that they're coming in on Monday [next].

8:12am Leave Camp
The track quickly heads down the hill to the road that runs through Hidden Valley.

The road quickly opens out into the rural farming area of Hidden Valley. Hidden Valley is now an Owner's Co-operative Society, but it retains it's classic looks.

Sandi wrote:

Birdsong main feature of day on long semi-road through Hidden Valley - dark cool leafy littered roadway with huge amount of bird song. Also later in the day.

The road eventually leaves the farming land behind and heads off into the lush bush. The walking here is wonderful under the tall trees full of birds in full song!

The creek carries a noticeable odor and we're a little concerned about getting some water as the level is also not particularly full. The amount of debris in the creek is amazing as well, lots of rubbish and plenty of large trees. There was a bad storm some time ago, that I think they were describing as a mini-cyclone, which is what we were presuming was the cause.

As we walked it became increasingly obvious that I'd mis-measured the distance to our intended Camp Site [4.2], and then all of a sudden we were there at morning tea time not just after lunch! This meant we had to have a quick re-think of our plans...

9:36am Morning Tea

In many ways I'm glad we didn't stop here to camp: it wasn't particularly nice.

Perry wrote:

Reached our intended campsite only to discover I've miss measured the distance - took less than 2 hours, actually, just over 1.5 hours! The question now is what to do tonight?

A plan - walk into Yarramalong today (est 3pm), camp at the bridge, then we can hitch/walk to Cedar Brush Trackhead and Basin Reserve which is Day Ten (on the Itinerary) on Day Nine = one day ahead.

After morning tea the track heads around to a creek crossing where we intend to fill our bottles again.

At this crossing I took a fall. Got my foot tangled in a vine as I was climbing over a tree trunk and I fell, like tall timber, flat on my face with my [heavy]pack on my back pushing me into the ground. Had to just lie there for a while until Sandi realised I wasn't following (even at a distance, taking photos) and came back and helped me up.

Once we were sure I was OK we headed off again, up the track which the map indicated was to climb 200 metres before it got to a ridge that would take us to our lunch spot.

Sandi wrote:

Met a chap who'd come from Wyong and said a running race was going through in 3 weeks time! Very pleased we'll be long gone.

11:45am Lunch Campsite 4.3

Perry wrote:

Walked very well yesterday until our lunch stop. Had another fall and ended up with scratches and a large lump on my right knee. Don't think it hindered my walking much though as I didn't notice it until much later.

All day we saw what we presumed was wombat scats sitting on top of rocks or roots! They were everywhere - and made us wonder if it was normal?

Had a great stop for lunch for about an hour. Drank heaps of beautiful, clear, cool water from the tanks. Sat in the shade of a tree and ate our vegemite and date sandwiches.

It's been a pretty nice day so far, nearly 8kms of good walking and a steep climb at the end. We sat leaning on our packs feeling sweaty and washed and like it'd be nice to stop.

Sandi wrote:

Campsite near the archery had 2 water tanks, so what a bonus and 4 shower stalls, though no plumbing, but there was no electricity.

12:39pm Leave
Needed to backtrack back to where we left the walk, the track is quickly swallowed by the tall timbered bush and heads down into a creek.

Heading up the other side the track comes out close to more rural area and heads along the roads until the old Dray Track.

I was pretty done in by the time we got onto the Dray Track: aching feet, almost unable to bear weight, pack sore and probably a little bit of self pity. The only thing I had left was determination.

Sandi wrote:

Very long feeling day and of course we've made it long. Mowbray really had to push hard to get down to Yarramalong from the top. It was an easy grade down hill in shade all the way so really nice. So relieved when we actually arrived.

3:54pm Yarramalong

Collapsed onto a park bench under the awning of the shop and removed my shoes; the cool tiles felt wonderful... until they sapped all the heat from my feet and made them ache even more.

We unpacked everything and sorted out our supplies. Realised that if we used our two "emergency" meals that we wouldn't have to walk of the track to Paxton for supplies.

Perry wrote:

Yarramalong store was just great - milk shakes, steak sandwiches and a promised lift tomorrow over the horrid road.

We've gone through our food and it looks like we'll be able to bypass Paxton if we like. So it looks like we'll be having a half day rest at Basin Reserve before we tackle the Watagans.

We waited till we absolutely the last minutes before dark before we left for our campsite, which the shop owners said would be OK. The week before when we discovered that the camping area mentioned on the maps had not been in existence for quite some time, we'd seen the possibility of camping in the little area beside the bridge if needed.

On the walk to the camp site I didn't tie up my boots and my feet felt remarkably OK. I began to wonder if I was actually tying up my boots too tightly and thereby throttling my feet? Could all this pain come from lack of blood because of the feet swelling in over tightened boots? Must experiment...

6:34pm "Campsite"

The Camp site [no number as it's not official] is private enough, though we wont be wandering too far in our pajamas; and we wont be lighting a fire either.

I've got to say that so far in the walk that Yarramalong has been the weakest link: no real camping within cooee. When we made that comment at the local accommodation they said that most people walking through Yarramalong are more than happy to take a night off and sleep in a bed. I'd hate to think what we'd do to the sheets!?!

Well, that was the end of Day 8: 19 long kilometres @ a reasonable average of 2.7km/h.

Tomorrow we now have a bit of a rest day (funny: it's Sunday too), because we've a lift to the Trackhead, and it's only half a day to Basin Reserve.