13.2km +478m -473m
“When guys in camouflage pants and hunting hats sat around in the Four Aces Diner talking about fearsome things done out-of-doors, I would no longer have to feel like such a cupcake. I wanted a little of that swagger that comes with being able to gaze at a far horizon through eyes of chipped granite and say with a slow, manly sniff, “Yeah, I’ve shit in the woods.”
A Walk in the Woods
Bill Bryson
A long night on the train, with patches of sleep, then a quick transfer in Melbourne and another train, then a kind lift from Peter from Bushwalking Victoria, and I was standing in Walhalla by lunchtime.
The plan was to spend the day soaking in the historic town. I wandered through the narrow valley. Stringer Creek commands the prime real estate, with driveways and fire stations built straddling it.
I stop in for a (fantastic) coffee at the Witchery cafe. Fuck it, I think. I’m not hanging around here until tomorrow morning, rain or no rain. I can make it to O’Shea’s Mill campground before dark and then tackle Mount Erica fresh in the morning. I gird my loins, hoist the mainsail, saddle the ponies, and set off.
Poverty Point bridge is closed and in need of repairs. No responsible hiker would risk crossing it.
Not a bad start at all. A little damp, I’m thoroughly enjoying the irony of having quipped in recent weeks that the weather would be fine and mild for the duration.
When I reached the campsite I found it already inhabited by fourteen school boys and their teachers on an ecology trip. Some of them were spending their second night ever out of doors. All I will say is that kids are fucking hilarious when you have no responsibility for them. I was most impressed by one lad’s patient success at drying his boots by the fire without melting them.
They kindly welcomed me to share their fire, and what with it being Halloween, we told stories about the Button Man (more on him later) as the shadows deepened on the first night of my AAWT, unexpectedly ahead of schedule.
Tomorrow looks like a 1500m climb. But shirley that can’t be accurate?
