After a better night’s sleep i was up early and off for a 15km walk to the Tapanappa campsite. Being shorter than yesterday I hoped I would have a better day. However, as is quite usual for me, I went the wrong way coming out of the campground. I went up the road, a steep climb, for about 2km before I checked my app and realised I missed the turnoff into the bush which was directly across the road from the campground. Bloody hell! Now a 19km day!
I would have kicked myself if I had had the energy. I was feeling the extra weight of my new tent, which is about 1kg heavier than my trusty Zpacks tent. I decided to hang it on my front to even out the weight better, which works well with the Aarn Packs that many kiwis use. I liked the result as I stood straighter and the pack weight didn’t seem as bad. Because of the heat and lack of fresh water on the trail, I was carrying about 3.5 litres of water (read 3.5kg). The day carried on up and down through the colourful Australian bush. Did I say up and down? Lots of birdsong and a few kangaroos to chat to.
I plodded on along tracks that are also firebreaks, meeting a man who was a day off finishing the complete Heysen trail after 55 days of walking. He looked tanned and fit and strong: quite the opposite to me. He told me that the detour, due to the fires, was “brutal” saying it was the hardest part of the whole trail for him. OMG, I thought, if he has walked 1,180km and today was the hardest, how the hell am I going to manage it? But what could I do, I had to keep going up and down. I had a good first lunch stop before the “Brutal” climb and sucked it up and carried on.
Rock climbing is not my forte and I didn’t have the strength to heave myself and my pack up the steep climb. So I took to throwing my tent up to the next ledge. I had to be very careful, so it didn’t roll all the way down as there was no way I wanted to have to go down that cliff to collect it. I would then heave myself up, grunting and groaning and repeated that all the way to the top. I came across of group of strapping young high school boys on a day walk and tried to con them into carrying my pack up for me but got no takers. Rude!
Once at the top, I felt very proud of myself if not completely shattered. I did it! The worst part over meant that the rest of the day wasn’t so bad. 8 hours all up with lots of stops.
Tapanappa Campsite was a drive in one and there were a few school groups and families in situ, but I was too tired to socialise. The lad from the night before had arrived not long before me and had struggled with the day as well. He was heading back the same way the next day and not looking forward to the climb down the cliff.
