Distance: To the Internet shed and back
Elevation: 15m asl
Time: all day
Total Distance: 540km
You quoted Ellen DeGeneres?!?
Shelle
With the hut to myself, I’m able to string the hammock up inside and have a pleasant night out of the rain. I’m not expecting this to continue; with flights grounded for the rain , any hikers coming in today will have to sit out the weather. My luck with having shelters to myself cannot last forever.
After breakfast I spread all my food out on the table and start portioning. I’ve got nine walking days left, plus today; a day of gluttony in which I can eat anything I don’t need for those nine days.
Nine days. Plus today, that’s fully a quarter of my walk still to go. And yet I feel so close to the end. My pack is gonna weigh a ton with all that food.
Ed and Hannah join me while they have breakfast and get their gear together. They have a similar time frame planned, so maybe we’ll meet up near the end. It’s nice to socialise after a few days away from everybody, and as much as I like to think of myself as a ruggedly individual solo hiker, it’s the random connections and unexpected shared enjoyment that really shine alongside the natural beauty of long hikes.
After counting out my coffee I have four spare, which they accept without even the pretence of demurring; Ed was responsible for the coffee supplies on the trip and has failed miserably. I don’t want to brag, but I may have saved their relationship.
After they head off into the rain, I very carefully warm my boots over the updraft of my stove turned down low. I’m using one of the many discarded gas canisters from the luggage shed (the plane can’t carry them out) so as to save my own gas for the walk out. Then I vigorously wax them with the small tub of beeswax paste from my food drop. Mud is a terror for stripping the oils from leather and drying it out. Upon inspection, the other shoelace also needs some maintenance. I came close to putting a spare pair in one of my food drops, but decided I was being ridiculous.
I lazily snack on my Mediterranean nibbles and treat myself to a mug of tea while I lay out my map and try to plan my stages for the rest of the walk.
I pop into the other hut to look at the log book. It is as I was told! The slippery bastard is two steps ahead, as always.
While I’m there, Liz asks if I’ve seen the caretaker; she wants to beg some tea bags. I tell her I’ve got extra that I was probably just going to send home. We arrange a swap. Either she was being extremely nice, or I’ve just swindled a nice lady in the throes of caffeine withdrawal. The pear tastes like pan-fried angel wings. I stash the liquorice log deep in my food bag for later. The apple I am careful not to aspirate whole in my eagerness to eat.
Back in my hut I go over the map and notes for the next section again while savouring the last of the laughing cow cheese and cheddar crackers. I have decided to do a hard pivot: this is now a food blog with occasional digressions to discuss hiking.
The shack by the airstrip has satellite wifi. It’s free for an hour and something like 100MB, or $15 for 24 hours and 1000MB. There’s also a higher tier I forget. I purchase a day’s worth and spend some time uploading the last five days of blog posts. It’s a rare treat not to be shivering on a mountaintop while doing it.
The Denny King museum/bird hide has a bunch of interesting history about the region. The south coast was heavily trafficked by whalers, and Spring and Davey rivers were logged for their huon pines, which were floated downstream to waiting ships. The King family mined tin in Melaleuca for many years. The orange-bellied parrot, numbering around 90 individuals, breeds here in summer and migrates to coastal SE Australia for the winter. The information boards are silent on whether they make good eating, but with numbers that low they must be tasty indeed.
I eat the two spare protein bars, and the spare nut butter bars, and the rest of the cheese and sun dried tomatoes. I finish off the squeeze pack of peanut butter from the last food drop. I cut up the remainder of the salami and put it in with my cheesy rice for an early dinner. There are some birds outside that look friendly and trusting, and small enough to fit in my pot.
Dinner finished, I finally feel full for the first time in an age. Soon enough The Hunger will return. Nobody has showed up, so I have the hut to myself again tonight. I string the hammock up and retire early to read Terry Pratchett and get a good night’s sleep.
