000 Km
I had an early start up at 04h40 after a noisy- from wind and waves- night. I decided when coming in yesterday that I would walk out today. It is 28km and its unlikely that I will make it the whole way out before the rest catch up with me. I packed up, threw a few things in the back of the ute, packed the bag, water and hung on to my tent as the wind tried to steal it while I tried to pack it away.
I left camp at 05h15 and headed off into the night with my moderate strength head lamp. It would still be dark for another hour at least.
I head up the small hill and noted that it was really pretty warm, despite the wind.
My first ‘attack ‘of the night was a tawny frogmouth that was sitting in the road and not moving until I was very close and it was scared off, but then directed itself back at me and only just avoided me when a clapped my hands loudly.
This happened a few times with other frogmouths too…until I tried to take a photo of one as it was getting lighter and it flew away quickly!
I had bats diving for me as my headlamp attracted insects…not fun!
The scariest bit of the night was when my light reflected back from four sets of eyes in the road. I stopped dead in my tracks and thought what my options are… if these were wallabies then not to worry…but what if they were wild pigs…bigger worry for sure, especially if they decide to charge. I took out my metal water bottle and knocked it with the metal lid to make a noise in the hope of scaring whatever creatures these were. After a few minutes there were fewer and fewer eyes . I set off again hoping that they wouldn’t come back !! All clear!
The walking after sunrise was much less eventful. I did about 17km in 3.5 hours before Johan picked me up. Good walk though.
It was not far to Bramwell Junction Roadhouse from here , though the corrugations are shocking! We stopped by for 2 coffees each- only place on the peninsula that uses beans- and some toasted sandwiches.
Off again for the short ride to Bramwell Station, where we are booked in for dinner – yeah!!!
We got in real early so had time to do hand washing, cleaning shoes and good early shower and I also washed my tent.
The most exciting part of the day was awaiting us: dinner and live music! It was great fun- the music was all the classics and in essence became karaoke for everyone. Dinner was very good- all beef to my delight- steaks, cottage pie, veggies and salads and potato bake as well as dessert.