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31km - 10 hours
How long should I wait before I chop off my stupid finger with my pocket knife? All i can say is never break your finger. It's swollen, it's got red lines across it now and it can't even grip my walking pole. Useless. Rant of the day over.
Today was a great day, after yesterdays awful walk. It was another hot sunny day and we hit the trail at about 8am. We had Laura, Conny, Tim, Ben & Lina. 14km of dirt farm road to walk. 8km in full sun before we finally got into the hills to provide some shade. What was cruel was that we were walking beside the nicest, clearest green river that had swimming spots after swimming spots but we couldn't access it for cliffs and thick vegetation. I then decided to just block out that view so i wouldn't get frustrated.
I almost felt like running the dirt road today, I'm not sure what came over me. Maybe because it's day 7 and today i just felt in my groove. The pack is still heavy but today my body just seems a little used to it.
It was also on this dirt road that I had flashbacks to one particular day hike I did in the Rif Mountains in Morocco with Otman. It was hot, we were walking up a similar winding dirt road as to the one I was on today. We looked up ahead and noticed 2 guys quite a way up the hill on a bend looking down at us, then one guy set off walking down the road towards us. When he finally passed us he stopped. We continued walking up but now the guy changed direction and started walking after us. Otman told me to just stop and wait for him to pass as he noticed the guys communicating on their phones with each other. Sure enough we kept leap frogging the guy and stopping. Otman and I now knowing that with the guy at the top now walking down, we were going to be intercepted at some point and most likely robbed at best. I'd hate to think what could have been, at worst. With no choice we kept walking up, ready to face the situation. We hadn't seen a car all day and then out of nowhere a car came up the track. Otman hailed it down and we hitched a ride with them. I was safe. For us to then notice the guys fist punching the air in frustration that we got away.
So today's road while walking, even though the possibility of what happened in Morocco couldn't be more unlikely here in NZ, I still found myself keeping a look out for two guys. Something's don't leave you.
After 20km baking in the sun and desperate for a swim, we arrived at the Emerald Pools. It lived up to its name. On trail, the tents get so wet with condensation overnight that you end up packing up a wet tent every morning into your pack. So first things first at lunch, the tents out to dry! Work before play. I jumped straight into these beautiful swimming holes so deep but you could see clearly to the bottom. We were eaten alive by sandflies so we didn't stay long and continued on the 7 kms to Captain Creek hut. Back in the lush NZ bush with ferns covering the ground, it was beautiful.
The last 5 kms to the hut seemed to go on forever but we finally made it at 530pm and the swarm of sandflies were a very awful welcome.
At this point Laura and I deliberated as to whether we should walk another 5 km (2 hours), that's what the tracks are like, to Middy Hut. With the sun not going down till 930pm I knew we had the time. So Laura, Conny and I filled up our drink bottles in the stream, put our packs back onour aching shoulders and continued on.
This part of the track had a good couple of swing bridges over the gorges below and the soft peet moss was like walking on cushions compared to the road.
We made it to Middy Hut, 31 kms and 10 hours later. I've decided to stay in the hut instead of camp because i can't be bothered setting up the tent. Instead I headed straight to the river for a swim. I was absolutely saturated in sweat all day.
I'm now lying in bed after cooking probably a family of fours quantity of couscous for dinner. Accidentally but i also know that i need to force myself to eat a lot so to have strength for the next few days. In saying that I have created possibly the best couscous recipe. Couscous, with cream of chicken soup packet, with dehydrated peas and salami. Mix in some garlic butter (hikers tip ;) ), olive oil and salt and pepper. Delicious!
There's a warning on the hut that we needed to hang our food containers because of the mice and rats, which I've done. Now i put my earplugs in because I do not want to hear the sound of any of them! And I'm just going to hopefully ignore the fact they're around. I reckon ill be back in my tent tomorrow night for sure.
Ren x
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