Day 14: Tin Mine Huts to Cowombat Flat Track 34kms, 9 hours, 50k steps, 1170 ascent, 0 people

It rained on and off last night, at times very heavily. I hadn’t stretched my tent as tight as I should have, and sometimes, when a gust of wind blew, it flapped, and a sprinkling of condensation rained on me.  At least I was warm. I didn’t sleep too well and seemed to be awake a lot, but at least I was off my feet for lots of hours.  The rain eased up around 5:30, so I got up and ready, packing up my wet tent to get dry another time. After savoury oats breakie, I was on the track at 7am, just after Lachie, who left at 6:30.

I disturbed a couple of groups of horses, and one in particular was extremely put out. He humphed and stamped and didn’t want to move away from what was clearly his patch. He finally succumbed and ran off with this girl horse and baby,  I also had a very bizarre encounter with a baby wallaby. I was standing still for awhile sending Jubble a message through my Garmin Inreach.   I started walking and this baby wallaby came flying towards me and pulled up just short of me legs,  did a very unco turn and scrambled off down the path,  trying to regain its footing. I’ve no idea who got the bigger fright!

Today was what my friends Jen and Rich would describe as elemental.  It was rainy,  windy and misty.  My feet were soaked within minutes and stayed that way until I got to Camp Jubbie that evening.  All day it rained on and off. You get to a point where you can’t really get wetter, so it doesn’t really matter.  The start of the day was uphill, but the nice gentle kind where you’re strolling up rather than toiling up.  Then down to Cowombat Flat and the border of NSW and Victoria.  They say you can straddle the river with one foot in each state, but my legs aren’t that long,  so I made do with a photo of me standing in the middle.

Just before leaving Cowombat Flat, I cooked my noodles for lunch under a brolly in the rain. I had a surprising number of flies with me despite the rain. After lunch, i had a quick look at the plane wreakage before heading off again.  There was just under 10kms of uphill,  some of it the toiling kind.  It continued to rain,  sometimes a spit, sometimes harder.  I finally got to the part of the track with a locked gate and Jubble on the other side. After a quick powerade and ditching my backpack in the car,  I finished the last 3kms sans pack, which felt amazing!  Jubble picked me up at tomorrow’s starting point and drove me to Native Dog Campground. We’ve stayed here before and it’s really lovely. We had the place to ourselves with the wallabies.  Surprisingly, no brumbies (Jubbie had them here last night).  It was so nice to get out of my wet clothes,  have delicious Singapore noodles for dinner, and hop into our nest. We lay in bed with light rain and softly rumbling thunder,  warm and toasty.