Day 9: Happy’s Hut to O’Keefe’s Hut 6/12/19

Last night was ridiculously windy. It sounded like the wind kept lifting up loose pieces of tin on the roof and slamming them back down. Turned out the forecast was wrong – the wind didn’t stop around 9pm. It went all night long.  I had a nocturnal visitor in the form of a very annoying mouse. At first I thought it was the wind rustling the fly on my tent until I realised it was definitely scratching. It kept scratching at my tent near my head. When I banged the walls or shone my torch it stopped. Just long enough for me to fall back to sleep.  All night long.  As first light came into the hut, I saw it scurry across the floor in front of my tent and didn’t hear from it again. I made sure to be super loud while packing up – hopefully keeping it awake a bit longer wherever it was.The creek was close by for filling up water.My backpack isn’t really feeling much lighter even though I started with my heavy meals first. It’s not long into the day when I can really feel my shoulders. My legs feel fine, it’s just my shoulders that ache after awhile. I need one of Iva’s massages!!The walk across Happy Jack Plain was an easy one, albeit windy. The climb from the plain was much more civilised than the descent yesterday afternoon!Apparently they use traps here for foxes and dogs. Boy I hope I don’t see one of those in use!After climbing off the plain I hit Tolbar Road which was a bit of a slog. The views were still great. I was marching along that road for quite some time, looking at the big hill ahead when I suddenly came across Grey Mare Trail, my turn off. Woo hoo! Careful what you wish for. Boy was it windy. I need a bigger word for windy. Cold and straight in my face all the way across the plains. After coming off the plain, crossing a road and heading back onto another plain, l entered the Jagungal wilderness area. No more AAWT signs until the other end of the area apparently. I met a couple who’d started the walk in Walhalla. They’d driven all the way from Brisbane and driven 3,000kms including setting up their food drops! They had been part of a group of four but the other two had pulled out. They were chasing Mitch and Brett – wonder if they ended up catching them. They confirmed no problem with crossings ahead and also gave some great advice to push on to O’Keefe’s hut this afternoon if I could rather than stopping at Farm Ridge Hut site. What fantastic advice that turned out to be. Thank you!! If l was going to make it all that way (27kms), l needed to get moving. I walked as fast as l could across the plains, up the hills and back down the other sides. I stopped for lunch on the path briefly before powering on. It’s amazing how quickly things dry out here. After all that rain and snow, it’s starting to look in places like it never happened. Mackay’s Hut is another cute one, albeit newer than some of the others being a replacement for one that burnt down.You come across random stuff on the trail. Like these clumps of grass all dug up. Who did that? Maybe this pig?And in a small temporary pool of water, lots of tadpoles. Hope they turn into frogs before the water dries up or someone drives through them!I had one water crossing for the day at Doubtful Creek.Farm Ridge Hut would have been a beautiful site to camp, but l took my fellow hikers’ advice and pushed on to O’Keefe’s Hut.What a fantastic place to stay. It’s a new hut, having replaced one burnt down in 2003. It’s insulated, wind proof and even has a dining table and chairs! What luxury eating my backpack meal in a chair. I slept in the dining room on my mattress.