Merivale to colac bay

The first 7 or 8 km from Merivale heads uphill on a road gravelled with white stones so I left the hut at 0515hrs yesterday to get the early hill work done before sunrise. Easy navigating by "stonelight". Tick.

The Longwoods Track kicks off from a forestry road through a eucalyptus plantation which smelled wonderful. After a couple of forgettable hours of more climbing I was on the tops and, hey presto, I could see from Riverton to Bluff. 

The route ran downhill for a bit, back into the trees, uphill again past tarns full of tadpoles and eventually down to Martin's Hut. Built 1905. Dump. 

Bagged a bunk, found a readable book and waited for the Three Rescuteers and a Dutch lass to roll in.

Check their feet. Muddy eh. All five of us suffered leaden legs for the last couple of weeks - in part, because there were no section breaks where we could buy real food to fuel our muscles. My Eat Lollies therapy works so well that today, here at Colac Bay, the camp store lolly stocks were completely bought up by these hiker trash. Lollies or no, these people kept me honest when I seriously thought of by-passing the Longwoods. 

And here's why I was tempted. After the rain stopped precisely at 0800hrs (as forecast by www.yr.no which is hands down best weather site) I trooped off to face the medicine. The track follows Port Water Race, hand dug 100 years ago for goldmining, so it contours for 25km. You'd think that would be wonderful, in fact it was one mud hole after another.

I arrived at Colac Bay Tavern in a howling gale just before 2pm, ate blue cod, ice cream, washed 8 socks, my sunshirt (patu, very) and a pair of knickers. Hot shower. Real bed tonight. Pretty exciting!