Holiday

I headed down south over the break to Wilsons Prom for a few days of bushwalking (and bushbashing, but more on that later). It was a good few days, and a little challenging as I went alone and unsupported to walk the more remote northern circuit, which involves some very basic navigation sections. My starting pack weight was about 36 kgs, finishing with about 31.

Day 1: Carpark to Five Mile Beach Camp (18 km) + Five Mile Beach (16 km)
I started walking that morning at about 9:30ish and had a mindless trip down the 4WD track, making it into five mile beach camp at about 2:00. After setting up camp I went for a walk/run (mostly walk) to the other end of the beach to check out the Cathedral, which is the name of the mountain that separates Five Mile beach and Sealers cove, and also the northern and southern circuits of the Prom. Crossing the top of it would allow one to do all the walks in the prom as one circuit, which would make for a nice 6 or so days. I decided it would be possible to make it through the bush over the top, but didn't end up testing this theory on this trip. Next time, and with people. Afterwards I headed backed to camp, racing the sunset back up the beach (it won), arriving a few minutes after sundown, and surprised how quickly the environment cools off at dusk. Live and learn. Then, cooked dinner by light of the headlamp (for the first and last time, brand new two days previous and as it refuses to turn on anymore...) and went to bed.

Day 2: Five Mile Beach Camp to Johnny Souey Cove (~5km)
I'd originally planned to make the grip from Five Mile to Tin Mine Cove, a journey of about 17.4 ks, but this plan was blown to hell by about nine thirty as due to a phenomenal lack of attention I had found myself about 3 or 4 ks further inland than I was supposed to be. I'd like to point out this trip was was not a difficult piece of navigation if one checks their bearings, knows the heading and path of the track (via map), and keeps an eye open for the flagging tape which marks some sections. I however, was paying no attention at all, and this plain fucking stupidity had me leave the track for an animal trail (they became remarkably similar at times.) By the time I had noticed, it was too late for backtracking, so I had a fun time quadrupedalling through the scrub in a general south-east direction for the beach, which was my only known landmark. After a few hundred meters of quadrupedal, I emerged into a beautiful landscape (was a bit too preoccupied to take photos though). On all sides, I was surrounded by ferns. I couldn't actually see the ground, and was trampling instead of generations of ferns. To the front and the side, generations of ferns had created towers about 2.5m tall, with live ones at the top and becoming progressively more decayed as they stretched into the ground. Trees had also grown, but the dirt around their roots had been progressively eroded, resulting in a mangrove-esque appearance which supported walls of ferns, creating a rainforest themed hedge maze about 15 m in diameter that went along the path of the river.

To begin with, it was just like moving through a ball pit, but for the last 800 or so meters the ferns were so thick and heavy that it was more like moving through a neck-high foam pit. In the end, I was able to leave the maze through a conviently placed boulder, and followed a much more human-sized trail parallel to the river until it emerged into the sea and Johnny Souey cove. In all, it was a nice succinct adventure which while not dangerous, had the potential to go very bad, as the wet ferns do a nice job of eliminating both sat phone reception above and obscuring the ground, increasing the chance of an immobilizing injury.

As it played out though, it was a nice crash course in navigation, and I won't be doing it again.

Day 3: Johnny Souey Cove to Tin Mine Cove (14.4 km)
I started the day in high spirits. It was a day of more difficult navigation than the previous, but paying attention helped immensely and apart from one little issue about 3ks from Tin Mine where I couldn't find the track for about half an hour, it was a good day. It rained lightly for most of the day, but obligingly stopped when I arrived at camp at about 2:00, and then obligingly started again (and a lot heavier) once I had my tent set up.

I had a remarkable experience here too - I found God- which is a rather rare experience for an atheist. There is literally no other way to describe the feeling, of being completely in touch with the rhythm of every raindrop, tree, scent, everything. On further reflection I came across the hypothesis that perhaps the Abrahamic concepts of God were supposed to be a conscious animation of this feeling; trying to inject a soul into the heartbeat of ones environment. This idea of a conscious puppeteer meant therefore a set of moral laws (no ability to reason results in no morals) appropriate to the time. It's more or less an academic argument that occurred to me, and might be interesting to theologians.

Day 4: Tin Mine Cove to Lower Barry Creek (~16 km)
Whilst advertised as the hardest day of the walk I'd actually rate this as the easiest, there were only about 3 contour lines for the day, and the scrub was only at a maximum of waist height. Though the track was required some searching in places, movement and vision were not restricted here like they were on the West Coast.

Day 5: Lower Barry Creek to Tidal River (~30 km)
This day was a pretty tough day physically. I covered the distance in about 8 hours, which had a lot of elevation gain. The first four or so ks were navigation, but after that I was back on the 4WD track from the first day, and was able to zone out again. The next 8 or 9 kilometers were on a dirt road, before the last few were all on bitumen, which meant by the end of the day though muscularly I was fine, my feet were aching from the repeated pounding, and struggled to fit into my boots again the next morning. Rain kept up steadily from when I got up till when I arrived, ten minutes before the shop closed - where I immediately OD'd on Maxibon . I'm pretty proud of my effort on this day, I was hefting about 32kgs + extra water (in case I didn't make it that day, and needed to make camp elsewhere) with a lot of elevation change, rain and mostly on one of the worst walking surfaces.

That was pretty much the trip. I took a few photos; if and when I can find a computer that takes camera cards I'll put up any nice ones.