Day 7: Last hills for a while
30 March, 31 km and still hot: White Horse Hills to Chadoora via Mt Wells
I had an interesting night - I stayed in the shelter without putting up my tent, because I had planned to leave super early to beat the heat for the last climbs. And I thought it might be nice to walk under the very bright full moon, so was aiming for a 4:30am start.
It was so hot that I only used my thin silk sleeping bag liner, and even that was more so nothing would eat, sting or bite me. There was a noisy chorus of cycadas and it just felt like a tropical summer night (I’ve been wearing my fleece 2 days ago...).
Around 1am, it started raining which sounded like hail on the iron roof of the shelter. Then it started thundering. I was nice and safe and dry in the shelter, but when it was still raining a little by 3:30am (and of course I kept waking up because of the sounds), I reconsidered my starting time as the moon was hidden behind the clouds.
I left camp at 5:15am (yes, still early...) which ended up being perfect timing for a stunning sunrise on the first hill.
I went on to climb up Mt. Wells which has a fire tower on top (I forgot to take a picture) and a nice little hut that according to the hut log book has a resident diamond python living under the beds. But it wasn’t home today. After having breakfast up there, I took off around 11am towards my next stop.
Well, that was supposedly the last hill for a while.
Everything in the Australian bush seems thorny and spikey (my legs are testament to that!), but there are also so many delicate plants and I often stop and try to take photos - limited macro options on the phone.
Und heute für Jutta zum Geburtstag noch ein paar australische Blümchen - wie versprochen!
Oh, vielen Dank, liebe Julia! Ganz besondere Blumen von einem ganz besonderen Platz, "überreicht" von einer mir ganz besonders lieben Frau!
ReplyDeleteThose spiky plants are like razor blades.
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