Australian Hiker

19.4km

6 hours 48 minutes

Tried to get away at 7:30am but by the time I recorded my social media it was just after 8:00am when I left. I say record because both the internet and phone signal was so bad I couldn’t publish so everyone will have to wait for the posts as I get closer to Nelson.

I was hoping to see koalas today but as far as on-trail life went all I saw at a distance was some noisy black cockatoos. I couldn’t tell what type they were as they were too far away. (I spoke too soon about not seeing koalas as I just went to the toilet and came back to my tent and there is a koala vocalising at the rear of the shelter.)

When I stopped for a break around 90 minutes into the trip even though I felt I was moving well. However, my Garmin GPS was telling me I wasn’t going to get to Battersby Camp until around 3:30-4:00pm based on how much ground I had covered which was a worry as I was walking slower as the day went on.

I had forgotten that when you put a Garmin Inreach into expedition mode to save battery that it drops a pin less frequently and then draws a straight line between each pin. Works really well when you are travelling in a straight line but as I spent much of the day looping around the river bends the overall distance it indicated I had travelled was shorter. While I was expecting to get to camp at around 4:00pm based on my GPS I arrived at 2:51pm, taking on average 21 minutes per kilometre – not too bad given this is my first long distance hike since my hip replacement. My hip is fine, it’s my excess weight that is slowing me down at the moment!

At one point I thought I had run out of water with what I thought was about 4km to go. This surprised me as I’m pretty good at judging my bladder water levels even when I can’t see it. When I checked, the bladder hose had kinked and I still had over 1 litre which was what I thought I would have.

I spent much of today following the Glenelg River and in looking at tomorrow it’s more of the same although the route seems to be a bit straighter. Today was another day spent in the forest as well as taking in the river views. Immediately before lunch ‘something’ shot off from under a bush alongside the trail. It had legs (not a wallaby or kangaroo) and was large but apart from that it moved too quickly to se what it was.

Speaking of the river, when I arrived at the camp one of the local schools was there which I had seen yesterday exiting having just spent the day canoeing from the jetty located directly in front of the walk-in camp. After having a cuppa I decided I would head down the short distance to the jetty and dangle my feet in the river. Oh that was nice! My feet really appreciated it although the small crane I startled wasn’t happy and let me know about it on no uncertain terms.

Battersby is a lovely camp and purely because of the jetty and the birdlife, it’s my favourite camp so far.

Before I arrived I had a short rest at the main campground not realising my camp was immediately adjacent and watched someone with a serious 4WD trying to reverse park a caravan without success. I was so close to offering to help but opted not to because I thought that might be embarrassing. He gave up and left after more than a few additional attempts.

I spent to rest of the afternoon drying my tent from last night, sorting food, and watching the large group of fairy wrens and other assorted birds catching dinner before heading to bed for my latest night yet.

One thing I haven’t mentioned is when I got to the shelter there was a packet of water purification tablets and a note from one of our followers who read about my filter problem and decided to help out. I can’t say ‘thank you’ enough for this kind gesture, I was a bit overwhelmed at the generosity and can’t thank whoever did this enough. The more hiking I do the more I realise that there are some really special people in the hiking community.

Whoever it was, please flick me an email but if you wish to remain anonymous that is fine too. Just know that you made my day – your gesture was totally unexpected and greatly appreciated!