For most, this was the last day. For one, it was the harddest. Brent had forgotten to book a bus and the ferry at Narcissus Hut so he left at 5 am to walk 21kms to Cynthia Bay. I've been told he made it--amazingly--by 3pm.
*note: my camera was all out of batteries at this point and I was left to take photos with my phone, a slightly less stunning device.
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| One of the pademelons we saw on the track! They look just like wallabies but are fatter and grey. |
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| Murkwood? |
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| At the turn off to Pine Valley we stopped for a break with Auke and Eline. |
We left around 8am to walk 15kms to Echo Point Hut, past Narchissus Hut where most would end their journey with a ferry ride back to civilization, and about 1/3 of the way along Lake St Claire. Along the way we found a family of pademelons (pronounced "paddy-melons") and found a goodbye message written in the dirt with stones for Adele. We crossed a suspension bridge (fun!) and took our last look at button grass moorlands.
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| Beautiful rainforest! |
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| Some of the last moorland... |
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| Randoms. Vagabonds. |
It was a sad goodbye. When we reached Narcissus, we hobled inside for lunch with those caching the ferry and the radio crackled to life, waking us from our dream world. On the otherside of that radio was warm showers, hamburgers, cell phone reception, beds, and beer, but to reach it we would have to give up so much. Some were very excited to head back (missing family, injured, or eager to return to their studies) but I just felt sad. We said our goodbyes not knowing if this was the last time we would be together as friends, and after a lunch of cheese and crackers, Jeremy and I pushed on.
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| The very last grassland on the track. We were hoping the whole walk along Lake St Claire would be flat like this but it wasn't. It was an agonizing 16kms of up and down climbs, over trees, through mud pits, and across streams. It was lovely, don't get me wrong, but it was really hard after 6 days straight of walking. |
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| See what I mean? Tons of fallen trees. This one was at least thoughtfully "modified" for backpackers--most of them require some amount of acrobatic skills or a bit of bush walking around them.. |
The last 5 kms to Echo Point was brutal, covered in slippery tree roots and guided by an indistinct trail. But the rainforest was beautiful and the trees amazingly big.
We gave out a big "Yay!" when we finally arrived at the hut, about 8 hours after we left earlier that morning. Being close to civilization brought with it other unappreciated "gifts": big black rats. The hut journal was full of stories about the rats eating through backpacks and scurrying across the floor at night. One guy went so far as to lock his bag inside the toilet (which was actually incredibly nice and secure and didn't smell at all--we mused at length about how much nicer the toilet was than the hut). Worried about the rats and weary of the stories we read, we locked our food up in a metal cupboard on the wall and put our garbage in the toilet.
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| Our rustic little home for the night... |
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| Coal heater complete with melted sock stain (that black mark on the top). |
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| Erin, pictured, called it "quaint". This is pretty much all of it. We were on that bottom bunk and black dust and mold kept falling on us every time the bunk bed moved. Gross. |
That night we slept with two other couples whom we had come to know quite well on the trip, and enjoyed a meal by the lake and a warm coal stove that night. Not without one last mishap though--one of my sock liners melted on the stove and made the whole hut smell like burnt plastic! Sleep came easily that night but the morning and our last day came too fast.
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| It wasn't the nicest hut but we sure did enjoy the view. It was a good way to end the trip. |
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