Well today was the day that all the planning and training came together. I laid awake most of the night listening to the rain on the campers roof and thought this is gonna be nice.
It all started with a quick shower to feel human but soon went pear shaped when I dropped my glasses while undressing. Those that know me will know that I never do anything without my glasses and this is for good reason. I am as blind as a bat. Well the tiles on the floor were brown with dark brown grout so I had no chance of seeing my glasses. Here I am stark naked on my hands and knees feeling around for my specs but do you think I could find them!! Nope – so still naked I check the other two stalls – lucky there was no one else up and using the showers!!! Imagine what they would have thought of a scrawny little nude bloke on hands and knees in the bottom of a shower cubicle!! Eventually I found them hard up against the wall in my cubicle. This was not a good start I am thinking – Lucky I don’t believe in omens otherwise I would have just gone back to bed and pretended that it was only the third of October.
Anyway despite my novel approach to the start of the day the sun actually peeked out from behind the clouds over Glenbawn for the start of Brook to Beaches. Ya!! To my surprise There were a group of family and close friends who turned up (even in ordinary weather) to cheer me off and show their support. Thank you so much to Team Nev, The Bidstrup's and the Boardman’s. You will never know how much it meant to me to see a group of people turn out for the start of my big adventure.
The river was pretty much what I expected for the upper reaches – I did allot of walking and carrying (probably more than paddling for the first 1 or 2 hours ) and there were lots of fences (4 electric and 2 barbed wire) ,fallen trees and general obstructions in those first couple of hours!
The shiny new yak has a couple of new battle scars (sorry to whoever wins it but I will try not to scratch it too much) but I made it to Dartbrook in about 5 Hours so all is well and I am primed for another big day to get through to Bengalla Mine tomorrow afternoon.
Talk tomorrow
Phil
Awesome Stuff!
ReplyDeleteI sense a Documentary in the making!
Keep up the great work Phil!
Pete, Ruth & Ben
I know what it's like to have to look for your glasses without them on! We have been watching the weather and hoping it doesn't make the trip more difficult. 5 hours sounds like a long time to us. All the best, M and R.
ReplyDeleteI can relate to climbing over fences, last time I did it with the yak I ended up more scarred than it. Paddling or walking I am sure you will enjoy the scenery.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the comments guys to answer your quest M and R - yep it's pretty slow going that first day - lots of kayak carrying and walking
ReplyDeleteGreg the fences are a pain - but I only got belted by one electric fence and the scenery is very nice. I wish i could include more photos
hi phil,
ReplyDeleteWow you currys are an amazing crew Thank you for all you have done to support Daniel and camp quality I am very proud to know you all Nola or mum nielson