29.86km +544m -578m
The sun is out!
We tried crossing the Murrumbidgee at the regular spot, but quickly decided nahfuckthis. We walked upstream a few hundred meters to these rapids:
Which we tried to cross, but quickly decided it wasn’t worth dying for.
We diverted across country to the Snowy hwy, then down Long Plain road. It’s a Sunday, and we were passed by more than a few 4x4s.
Eventually we got across the Murrumbidgee
We’ve done over 100km in the last three days, and we were both feeling it.
Rod drifted off ahead of me as we neared the hut. I saw on the map that there was a potential shortcut cross country, behind a small hill and approaching the hut from behind, and when I saw a faint trail at the spot I would have picked for it, I took it. I double-timed it and got to the hut before Rod, sat inside and waited the couple of minutes until he arrived and opened the door to see me grinning at him. His exhausted brain struggled to make sense of my presence there. Naturally I thought this was the funniest thing ever. Trail madness has well and truly set in.
Having reached Hainsworth hut without getting rained on we had yet another fire to dry out socks and boots. The last few days of walking with wet feet have not been particularly kind to my little piggies.
It rained on and off during dinner. The good news is we had more blue sky than not today and the forecast suggests that the weather for the next few days should be fine.
A final plan has been formed. I’m going to skip blue waterholes; my plan of walking the untracked Goodradigbee river back to the track does not seem plausible given the levels of the waterways lately. We’ll camp at Oldfield’s hut or Murray’s gap tomorrow (Monday) night. I’ll do Mount Bimberi on Tuesday and we’ll meet up to camp at Honeysuckle Creek campground Tuesday night. Wednesday we’ll walk the remaining fifteen or so km to the visitors centre and the end of the walk, getting in around lunchtime.
It’s somewhat confronting to have the end so close in sight.
