Saturday, May 21, 2016 – 8.56 km

Easy day today. 9 km all on dirt roads, except where the Heysen took a shortcut across a stream (apparently needing to fill some kind of stream-walking quota). Open scenery with ranges in the background.

I arrived at Middlesight Water Hut shortly after noon despite leaving Yanyanna Hut late, so I lounged around, read the logbook and climbed a few hills for the view. I had just teenage boy-peed (peeing in the open, sometimes but not always in close proximity to an actual toilet) when a day hiker turned up. In my defense, this isn’t exactly the crowded AT, okay? But if he saw anything, he was polite enough not to mention it.

The moon rose like a beast tonight, like a supermoon, creating an odd effect where there was substantial light from the sunset and moonrise at the same time. I’m sitting on the tent platform, wishing that I could identify more of the constellations and singing ‘Moon River’ to myself even though the only words I know are ‘moon river’ and ‘someday’. Another good thing about hiking solo: no one will be annoyed by you singing songs endlessly and not knowing 95% of the words. (Though to be fair, a hiking partner/servant might actually know the words to Moon River, and be willing to spend several hours developing a harmony.)

I hear an emu, which make a distinctive sound like woodblocks.