We packed up and left our Summer House by 7.30am pleased not to be packing up our tents.
The day was varied with flat paths alongside a canal, a cafe stop, a walk across the worlds highest aqueduct, and along more country roads underneath high limestone cliffs
We stopped fir a coffee at a cafe in converted church. I ordered the scone with jam and cream, but I think I could match those scones, which is not saying much. However, a seat and a toilet are always appreciated when out on damn long walks.
We walked quite close to a working castle, but the trail didn’t take us there, much to my disappointment.
A car following us up a very steep narrow hill, stopped to compliment me on my calf muscles. The driver got out and dropped his long pants to show me his calfs, saying I had put him to shame. It is not very often I get compliments on my legs, so I took it with pride.
The 3 young guys were camping up the top for the night. They invited us to camp with them and share their drinks and fire. Bugger, it was too early for us to stop, so we waved them on.
We had been meeting up with groups of school kids from Liverpool doing their Duke of Edinburgh overnight hike. They were laden down with huge packs that had more stuff hanging off the backs of them. I do feel sorry for them knowing I am only carrying about half of what they are even though we have the same needs. I fixed up one poor girls pack as it was hanging to one side and flapping about.
We had planned to do the next 3 days over 4 days instead as they were all about 28-30km days. However, like yesterday we were only a couple of kms from the end before we found a good campsite.
We took a road route today rather than go off up and under the high cliffs, crossing scouring. We both decided we had done enough of that on Te Araroa. We could hear the kids up there chatting away while we went up and down and around on a very narrow country lane.
This was where we had hoped to find a camping spot, but there was a 12km long organic farm that made it quite clear that we were not welcome. So we carried on across some wet moors and forest; neither good for camping.
At 5pm we found a nice flat paddock and sat in the sun and cooked our dinner. We had a visit from the farmer and he just gave us a friendly wave so put up our tents and enjoyed the sun, being watched by some more funny looking sheep. We had walked 28 km that day, had some decent stops, and taken 9 hours. I had a really good sleep.
