Day 43/44 Keplar Track 50km walking
Bike parked up with Bob and Maxine. Bob rightly insisted on lending us both floppy fishing hats and me a walking stick. He dropped us at the park gate with our packs and enough food to feed a large family for a week (Mark was very worried about being hungry). So we set off and walked along the lakefront and then up through the primary totara and beech forest for a couple of hours. Then beyond the treeline and into alpine territory. We arrived at luxmore hut in time to bag a couple of bunks with panoramic views over the mountains and the lake in the valley and set about eating our freeze dried food. Not a huge success. Accurate measuring of water was lacking from our culinary skills and seemed critical. But good company over dinner and an early night with earplugs firmly inserted.
Day 2. We woke early and set off before 7. This meant we arrived at our next night stop before 11am and decided to press on to the next hut. Sadly this one was full for the first night of the season and we ended up walking all the rest of the track. So now we're a day in hand but both walking with a painful sort of waddle. Near the end of the walk we were questioning both our sanity and our tendency to rush things. Lessons never learned....
(To set slightly in context, many people run the whole track in one go and the record is under five hours)