Day 26. 3 October Gregory Brook campsite.

This long walking asks a lot of your body and if we aren’t careful it can wreck the only body you have. One day you will wake up with creaky knees, sore hips and feet that resemble bags of mince meat. But this track has been well designed to reduce the chances of this occurring. There are campsites an easy 4 to 6 hours apart. (15 to 24km) This sometimes seems not far enough to walk in a day especially with the track being mostly flat and not technical at all.

But to double hut would put unnecessary strain on your body. Just sit and enjoy the rest of the day and have time to process the mornings walk. There is no need to go onto the point of breaking. Some do as they have time constrains. “I only have 30 days leave” they say as they plough on as I sit and eat a leisurely lunch.

Then a few days down the track I may see that their name is no longer in the hut book. They have pulled out, way before their 30 days leave is up, with broken bits. They can sit with their feet up, recuperating, for the remainder of their holiday and go back to work saying they didn’t make it to the end. Better to have made more realistic goals; do half this year and the remainder another year.

But in saying that some do make the 1000km in much less time than I plan. 60 days is my goal, basically one hut a day and a rest day in each town. I tell them that my end date is my date of death. I can keep walking until I die, if I want to. I am pretty sure that is not going to be how it plays out. I will need to work to top up the bank account at some stage.