2277 - 2307 Lake Clearwater
Breakfast at Double Hut was incredible if only for the view. I sat on the grass surrounded by rabbit shit with a cup of tea and a re-hydrated meal and soaked it in.
Angelynn has decided she is going to leave us as she wants to complete the journey before her flight. It appears the slackpacker life can no longer be hers.
Still, we all started off together and walked to where Hakatere Road diverged from the track, gave her a hug, and then watched her dwindle into the distance.....OK, that part is purely metaphorical. We did turn around after a 100m or so but she had already disappeared. Maybe a testament to her awesome hitching powers, possibly because she is so fast, but more probably because there was a bloody hill in the way by then. We waved anyway.
After that it was pretty much walking over a baking hot plain, through a valley, a saddle with a dead lake, and then down towards Lake Clearwater.
It's a little bit windy up here at the moment. The forecast is saying about 150km wind gusts but we haven't seen anything near that yet. Hopefully we won't as my present camping position is so exposed that it is in danger of getting me arrested. A couple of large rocks have been placed on strategic pegs to give me hope.
Tomorrow we will be going to Mt Sunday, location of Edoras in the Lord of the Rings movies.
Hindsight
- Sometimes you do see people again.
- At around 7:00pm a guy turned up who had already walked 50km and wanted to reach the river (10km away) before nightfall.
Lake Clearwater Map
