Monday, May 09, 2016 – 19.03 km

Today’s weather was the same as yesterday’s, but the walk was less exposed and didn’t present much difficulty other than the mud. A tiny bit of single track (rare!), preceded fence-walking and roadwalking through hilly country.

Calabrinda Creek Campsite was bizarrely located on an exposed hilltop. A ridge in one direction may have offered shelter were the wind blowing from that direction, but the wind had other ideas and was blowing with massive force from elsewhere. My journal notes get curt and grumpy here: ‘Setting up tent massive effort and didn’t get groundsheet on. Will not be able to sleep. Didn’t want to cook but did’. I had to place my pack and several rocks inside my tent before inserting the tent poles, otherwise pitching it would have been impossible. I kept remembering the words of Arthur Dent: ‘I seem to be having tremendous difficulty with my lifestyle’.

I noticed that the outhouse didn’t stink, so I glanced into the toilet. Gross I know, but I must report that THERE WAS NOTHING THERE. NO ONE HAD USED THE TOILET SINCE THE LAST TIME IT WAS EMPTIED. This may reflect a combination of ‘badly located campsite’ and ‘no one hikes the HT ever’. Today is my fourth day in a row without encountering people.