June 12 2021

Days km: 20.3
Total km: 63.5

I had the shelter to myself last night and slept very well. Enjoying the sunrise, I called home during breakfast and caught up with the family, which was a treat, then packed up and got going. Within 30 minutes I came across quite a few hikers heading northbound. One of them, Bruce,  recommended I stay at Donelly river when I get there as it was ace. He also asked me to watch out for Gilly who I would see in a few days and say howdy. I promised I would.

The walk was really pleasant after the hills of yesterday  and before I knew it I was at Beraking shelter. I had a bite to eat and then headed on to Mt Dale.

In my unfit state the climb was tough. It wasn’t particularly steep or anything, but it was enough to wind me. The weather was a factor as well, it was only about 20 degrees but with no breeze and no cloud cover it seemed hotter. I stopped frequently to catch my breath and the red tailed black cockatoos laughed at me. At least it felt like they did.

My feet were aching something fierce once I got to the top and all I wanted to do was sit down, but I still had a couple of ks to go. It was downhill, but even so the last few ks to the campsite always feels like the longest.

A scout group of 11 kids and 3 adults was camping at Mt Dale. They all had tents so I had the shelter to myself,  they did cook dinner at the shelter though, which was a loud, long, chaotic affair.

At the noise the kids were making one of the Scout leaders looked at me apologetically and said “Sorry about this.”
“Oh no worries at all. It’s good actually…” I winced at a particularly loud shout, “I was missing my kids…and now I’m not”