Australian Hiker

Another day of two halves as I make my way to Fitzroy Camp at a distance of 23.9km.

This morning was all about the wildlife. First the 4-5 goats which was a new one for me and very healthy looking ones at that given goats can live on just about anything. Then there was a tiger snake and I don’t know who was more startled. It saw me before I saw it and I only noticed it as it moved off as the colouration was prefect for the environment. In addition my sunglasses didn’t help either. Then I had wallaby’s that didn’t seem to care about me whereas they usually disappear as soon as they see someone. And last but not least three large kangaroos bounding over tree trunks across the trail to get out of my way; the afternoon brought nothing in the way of animal life as the temperature heated up.

The other impact of seeing the snake was what caused me to slow down and focus on potential snakes. In addition, the heat was slowing me down as well. As a result I took 8.5 hours to travel my distance.

I ended up running short of water about 500 metres out of camp and then discovered that my water filter had aged-out. Not a problem I thought because I always carry backup tablets but realised I hadn’t checked when I packed. As a result I will be drinking unfiltered water for the rest of the trip so we’ll see what happens there! I do have gastro tablets so I at least did something right.

Past through Cobboboonee Camp at around 11:00 am and stopped for an early lunch. This campsite was similar to others structure wise but again a soil surface. Fitzroy Camp is again the same structure but narrow and long with a reed clay based surface which looks like it would get quite muddy with some rain.

It’s 3:40am as I write this post as I thought that I might as well do something given I was wide awake but I will try to get a couple of hours of additional sleep as I finish this post.

One thing to note is that the tree coverage is so heavy that my satellite communicator isn’t getting a signal out and my phone signal is also very hit and miss. I definitely can’t do internet so this post may be delayed in its sending.