Day 23: Rocky Paddock to Rossiters Hut

Daily distance: 32.2km
Total distance: 350.12km

Nearly froze my whats-its off last night! This morning was no different when we set off but at least we were dry and had a dry tent. The kids were also quiet which made me want to go jump up and down and shout as loud as I could in their camp.... payback.

It was a beautiful day when we set off down the hill towards the forestry headquarters with bright early morning sunshine glimmering off the dew. The headquarters was a lot closer than I had anticipated so we got there before anybody could take our money for camping there yesterday.  Ah well I guess we'll just pay double next time!

We zipped through the HQ grounds after a couple of "selfies" in thier windows, onto farm roads, through paddocks with cows and sheep onto the hills. Always, onto the hills.......  A couple of hours in, we left the roads and turned into the Jenkins Trail area and headed up into some really very nice hilly eucalyptus 'bush' country. Emu-Wren....Tick.... A map at the trail head gave us a good overall veiw of what distance we have walked so far which made us feel better  about the whole thing. The trail took us over a steep mountain  where gold mining had taken place in the 1800 and down the other side into the SA Forestry plantations again. As the weather was great the plantations did not seem so bad and the walking was good cause it was cold.

We stopped for a bite to eat on the slope of a hill at 16.5km. I was suprised at how good I was feeling at that stage and just hoped it carried on that way.. our little picnic was great with crackers, vegiemiet, cheese and salami. This was topped off with a fruit and nut trail mix and my very own favourite, cadbury milk chocolate. Who said we couldn't eat well?

In the afternoon we entered the wine area called the Barossa, not the Barossa Valley yet but just on the outskirts. Come late afternoon with the sun going down we had only a short distance to go to our camp.... well so we thought.... until we found out the camp was not there anymore! Hhmm.... sun down and still 3km to go after 10 hours of walking already. The last 2km were in the dark so I cannot tell you what it looked like except it was felled piine plantation being,  so not that bad to miss!

We found the Rossiters hut we were looking for by GPS, only to fnd it padlocked closed. No worries we just moved the table on the veranda and have put up our tent here. Also put up a wind screen so hopefully tonight will be warmer.

Tomorrow we walk into the town of Tanunda, and get meet by Jeff. Dee will be leaving me for the next week or so to go spend time with Belinda. Yip, sad I know! Today we walked our biggest distance of 32.2km and have walked a total 350km in 3 weeks together and absolutely loved every minute of it. I will miss her, but take comfort in the thaught she is spending time with her daughter and that she will be back.... however, to be replaced by Jeff-fa-fa.. mmmm I dunno?

Day 22: Kersbrook to Rocky Paddock Campsite

Daily distance: 22.9km
Total diztance: 317.92km

Got an early start from behind our dumpster this morning and started walking in the freezing cold. It was only 5km into the walk I could start feeling my fingers. Things went well this morning and we found our trail again about 2km from the "dumpster campsite". We spent a long time early this morning on the main road before turning east onto some farm roads and fencelines. As you can see from the pics we are sharing the trail with alot of other groups at the moment but luckely haven't bumped into anybody or any horse yet.

We stopped for breakfast on top of a ridge with a veiw of what seemed like the whole world. It was spectacular! Out came they wet kit for drying while we made coffee. The weather was fantastic and even though overcast there was absolutely no wind. Later in the day it cleared up completely, however I cant say it warmed up at all.

We passed Scotts Shelter (with the temperature like it is it is probably The Scott) which is a shelter built for hikers wth bunk beds in and a tank with rainwater and toilets. Very cool! The highlight for the day, which was full of highlights, was the walk through the Warren Conservation Park. It was single track along steep ridges, all in natural eucalyptus bush. When the bush cleared we had fields of Large Grey Kangorros..... I mean mobs of them. Check the photos!

We topped out at a fire observation tower at twenty kilometers and headed downhill towards the Rocky Paddock Campsite. we de ided to take the alternate route which was a coiple of k's shorter as we were buggered. This lead us straight to the campsite rather than round the mountain first. It turned out to be an extremely large camp site in the pines and we choose a site as far away from a noisy school group as possible. (Not that it made any difference at all. I am being renditioned to "all night long" and a whole assortment of school songs. Lets hope it doesn't carry on all night......) Got the tent up with a bit of time to let it dry, got a roof over the tent to try stop some of the dew and also help with warmth.

Had a great dinner of TWO packets of Mexican style rice, a mocha coffee and now bed. It is absolutely freezing and we both have everything we have on and it's still freezing.

It was a great days walking today and both Dee and I agreed it was probably one of our best so far. Enjoy the pictures.... we did!

Brrrrrr.......

Day 20: Sixth Creek to Cudlee Creek

Daily distance: 14.4km
Total distance: 274.32km

Most men on their wedding anniversary would arrange to take their wives out to a romantic getaway somewhere and have flowers, candles, and wines. Well not me..... Wake up in a tent with pissing rain, pack up and get rained on, walk uphill for 14km in the rain and wind with nothing but a tent as a destination..... boy is Dee lucky to be married to me or what? Happy 8th anniversary my love and I hope we have many many more together!

Now that we are sitting in a warm, dry pub that serves great food, looking out at the crummy weather, with a room booked and paid for, there is no place and no person I would rather be with now and have spent today with!

Todays walk has been the toughest for me so far.... why? I think because it started out with rain and everything getting wet when packing up. My energy levels were also very low so when we got to Cudlee Creek there was no other option than to che k in for the night!

The weather today has been awful with hectic winds trying to blow us off the slopes, freezing cold and rain. The hills were also not fun and never seemed to stop. If we had been seen by anybody on trail today they would have got a huge fright probably thinking they were going to be attacked by 2 hunch back monsters with our ponchos on billowing in the wind.

To cut a long story short we took the alternate route and went into the "metropolis" of Cudlee and stopped at THE pub-restuarant-tearoom-information centre-caravan park, and booked a room. We have now washed clothes, bodies, drying tent and everything else with the aircon set to 35 degrees and absolutely loving it! Back in the all-in-one having a bottle of wine and a feed.