Distance: 7.7km
Elevation: +259m -499m
Time: 2:22
Total Distance: 241km
We made a lot of birds very unhappy.
-Inga, cryptically
We’d agreed on a 7:00am start to beat the heat. We’re all ready to go by 6:45. It’s not that we wanted the walk to be over; I think we all would gladly have gone another week. It’s just that by now we were a well-oiled machine built for the simple task of walking, setting up camp, and striking camp again. This is a big part of the appeal. Life distilled down to a basic routine punctuated by moments of intense natural beauty.
We make the 300m climb to the saddle of Mt Tennent with ease, and soon the arse end of Canberra is laid out before us. The day is already warming up to be a scorcher. I’m looking down at my phone, trying to upload blog posts with the recently acquired mobile coverage, and sweat is dripping into my glasses. Scott and Daniel pull ahead, lured presumably by the freezer and fridge sections of the visitor centre.
At this early hour on a Friday, we meet only one other person on the track; a young woman out running up the mountain before things get even hotter.
It’s a stark contrast to the snow we were negotiating our way across just a few handfuls of days earlier.
And, for the third time in three years, it’s over in the blink of an eye. I notice that they’ve removed the trail marker from the bottom of the stairs, which is sad. I’ve inculcated the group into the superstitious practice of tapping trail markers when we see them, so not having one last one to tap is anticlimactic.
It’s been fantastic. I’ve had long, unhurried days to explore what it means to be a walk leader (apparently I’m a very relaxed one) and sharing the walk with others who might not have done it otherwise has been immensely rewarding. We’ve had a lot of laughs, and I’ve been impressed with the ability of everyone to tackle what might have been a bit of an ambitious ask.
It’s reminded me on a visceral level how incredibly satisfying long distance walking is, and renewed my excitement for Tasmania. I’ve had a chance to review what works with my gear and what doesn’t before I dive headlong into that rugged island, and created a list as long as my arm of things I need to address in the short weeks before then.
We sit on the balcony and enjoy ice-creams and cold drinks in the shade for a long time. For now, the day is still unhurried and quiet. Soon enough the towering edifice of bullshit that is modern civilisation will have to be rejoined. Mt Tennent looms like a punctuation mark, though it never feels like it marks the end of the walk, so much as invites a beginning. More opening parentheses than period.
