Sunday 8 November 2015

Day 7 From Herenkino Camp to Raetea Summit (TA 143.5) about 20km

Woke to a beautiful morning - one thing that I have been lucky with so far is the weather. I remember telling people before I left that I just needed a little patch of blue to follow me and so far that has run true. Anyway my first priority was water as I had used most of mine on the crossing. Didn't take long to find a stream so refilled and was on my way. It was actually really lovely walking along the road, pretty views across the country side - a nice change to the forest. Just as I started on the road that ascends to the Raetea Forest, Alex and Hariett caught me and passed me. They stopped a bit further up, so I passed them - playing tag again. It was a steep road climb to the start of the trail and it was hot so I was stopping frequently in the shade to cool down. I got to the final stream before the true track start to the ascent to the summit of the ridge. I had two litres, so didn't refill as I thought it would be plenty to get me up and for dinner and breakfast.  What I didn't think about of course was my walk out in the morning.

I started up. In the beginning it seemed like the track was in a little better condition than Herenkino- drier, but it was steep and hard work and I was drinking a lot of water. I was having a rest when my tag team caught me again. Alex echoed my thoughts that so far it didn't seem as hard as Herenkino, 'Knock on wood'. At that point it was 3kms to the summit and when I started off again I didn't think that it would take me 3 hours to do those three kilometres, but it did. The track deteriorated to where each step became a struggle - more mud, especially carnivore mud; thick overgrown trail with lots of fallen trees that you had to go over or under or through, and of course a relentless up, with some bits so steep that I had to crawl up them. It was around one of these difficult climbs that I realised I was in a pickle with water. I could hear Alex and Hariett coming up behind me and I asked them what their plans were. They were likely to push on to see how far they could get so I asked them if they could spare me 500ml. This was a big ask as there wasn't likely to be any water on the ridge line, but they gave me some anyway and I am forever grateful. I honestly don't know how I got to the summit but I did. At one point I was just sitting wanting to cry but knowing I couldn't as I couldn't spare the tears. I stumbled to the high point and relieved, found a place where I could set up my tent in the trees and went to have a look around the summit. The views went on forever, I was so glad I could have cried again! I had a look for where the trail went for the morning but couldn't find it. Slightly panicked I realised that I hadn't seen an orange marker for a while, but I knew people had camped at the summit before so it couldn't be far away. I backtracked a little and found where the trail went around to the left and the top of the saddle to the right. In my leg weary, mind weary state I could have gone left and missed the camp site entirely. Thank you to whoever sent me the right way. Dry dinner of a wrap and cheese then rest.

Pigeon xx















This is the view from the Summit - no photos of trail today, couldn't spare my hands to take a photo !,

1 comment:

  1. Think of any of the great 5 animals with each challenge.

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