Walking out of the forest.
Waking up I had a few mouthfuls of water and oats then the same 2 hours later. With the water I had left I couldn’t afford to use it on food, the GPS battery sits at 2%
Slipped a few times on asshole logs (logs with slippery moss).
One log I was walking delicately along was hovering a few meters above a dried stream, as I approached the base and final few steps the middle collapsed and I fell right through grabbing the outsides with my forearms with my feet dangling below, a little grin to myself and I hoisted my legs back onto the top of the log and off I go again.
Eventually made it to a road with 300 ml water and 1% battery also used for GPS. I kissed the road and ate the other half of my cherry ripe.
Absolutely shattered physically and mentally.
Hiked on after a bit and passed four dry creeks before finding one with running water. I sat down and could barely move to get some water from the stream as I think all the focus and drive had exhausted me. Like my body and brain knew I could relax a moment.
When I eventually did get up I headed under the bridge and washed myself and my clothes, strung the clothes up over a few logs and drank a couple litres of water, ate pasta and had a coffee and sat in the sun for an hour or so.
Before I ran out of phone juice I memorised the route:
Keep left
Veer right
Right onto Tiger Road
Follow all the way to
Florentine Road
Then right again towards Maydena
Take the left onto the Gordon River road towards Maydena
Thinking about hiking and paddling the Tyenna River if it’s high enough and then Derwent into Hobart.
Or
Heading into Gordon road and going right and to the Huon, not sure about time for this or more importantly the state of the headwaters of the Huon River, my suspicion is that it will be log jammed similar to the Gordon River.
I guess I got part of what I came out here for. To really test myself knowing it's all on me to be truly alone in the wild.
I was just determined to keep going. Got lucky with the road 3kms before I expected it.
Saw so many snakes on the road, maybe 7 of them and a couple of echidnas:)
Sleeping on Tiger Road tonight
The weight and gear I packed is definitely for pack rafting not cutting your way through a forest.
Back is sore as are my knees, especially my left knee after my fall and legs are simply tired.
Think I'll sleep well tonight.
Cheers - TazMania