Start – Aparima Hut
Finish – Telford Campsite
Daily Distance – 21 km
TA Distance – 2850 km
Bluff Distance – 191 km
This evening I have mainly been napping, reading a biography of Capt Cook I found in a hut recently and
turning the inside of my tent into a sandfly graveyard.
Owing to the uncertainty surrounding timings today I drove myself pretty hard and pushed through on a
mix of sugar, caffeine and loud rock music. Oh, and an awful lot of cheese, but that is fairly much a
constant these days. 21km through primarily forest in 7.5 hours with only a 45 minute lunch break is
pretty quick going I think, although the energy crash has hit with full force this evening. It’s just a shame
that this campground is plagued by sandflies. Every time the tent door is opened they swarm inside, so the
hours since arriving have mainly been spent hiding in my tent and trying to convince my bladder to
cooperate. Not quite the romantic ideal of ending the day sitting round a campfire in fine company and
good cheer.
Tomorrow, my route takes me across Mt Linton station (farm), a dark cloud which has been lingering on
the horizon for some weeks. This section was the cause of considerable acrimony between hikers and the
TA trust earlier in the summer. The station owners have been turning people around who are not sticking
to the prescribed route, even when they are only a small way off and by the sounds of it not really causing
a disruption. The issue from the hiker perspective is that the trail is notoriously boggy and poorly formed,
so nearby 4wd tracks running in the same direction look pretty tempting. I gave up following the debate
when the TA Trust called anyone who complained about the track condition “entitled brats”. Suffice to
say that nobody has been looking forward to this section. Fingers crossed it will be better than reported,
but at least it will be over by this time tomorrow.
To end on a more positive note, I have really enjoyed the challenge of today. Also, I have a feeling I’ll
sleep very well tonight.
