Follow the Journey

It’s time now for our free travel! We have managed to land an awesome deal with a rafting company which Michelle had some contacts in. 9 of us will be doing 2.5 days hiking on the St. James Walkway and deviating from it a little bit to reach the destination where we will be picked up and then go rafting down the Clarence River for 3 days. We woke up early and got to the ferry no problem. Unfortunatly the passage was a bit rough and a few of us ended up puking, but other than that it was fine. On the other end we collected our baggage and met our driver who would be taking us to the river rafting companies base so we could repack bags for those of us who were trekking. I (Tommy) borrowed a bag because mine was too smnall to fit anything else in it besides a tiny amount of the food and my items I was bringing. But with the bigger bag our group, (Ally, Claire, Sienna, Taylor, Sadie, Macy, Michelle, Courtney, and I) got all the food we wanted to bring, the pots, knives, bowls, and silverware that we needed to bring into our packs. We then loaded up the van again leaving vast amounts of stuff at the base center and drove to where we were droping those who were staying behind at their hostel. We then drove a few more hours to the start of the St. James Walkway. At this point it was around 8 pm, we thought this was ok because the guy who told us about the trek said the first hut was about an hour and a half away. The sign said 3.5 hours though. Undaunted we started off thinking the sign was for slower peoples’ times. The first hour or so we still had moderatly good light, and we switched on headlamps once it got too dark. At around 10:30 we were starting to worry that the sign was actually correct and that we had at least another hour before we could rest. Along the path were stream crossings where you really couldn’t help but get wet, this didn’t help with the cold that was creeping through our fleeces and jackets. Sadie was having a hard time on the path which was by this time very dark and uneven. She fell several times and her ankles were really starting to hurt. We were getting more worried as the time went on and morale was starting to fall as was our strength. We finally made it though to the cabin, the time was 12:30. We were all freezing, wet, and exhausted. We fell into bed without supper and prepared for the next day. The second day we started out fine, albiet tired. Halfway through the day Claire pulled a muscle in her ankle. This caused her much pain but she didn’t complain once. We had slowed down too much though and going the pace we were we wern’t going to make the meeting point in time. Those of us who wern’t injured took most of the weight, or as much as we could, from the packs of Sadie and Claire in order to speed us up. This worked for a time, but even that was not enough. We eventually had to make a drop with most of their packs on the side of the pather for a few of us to come back and pick up later. This sped us up considerably, and we reached a hut 14 kilometers from the hut we had started out from. Alley, Michelle, and I went back for the dropped stuff and returned to the hut after 3 more hours of face paced trekking. Michelle used her SAT phone to contact the base and ask if we could be picked up at this dirt road about 17 k’s from where we were staying that night. They responded that a 4 wheel drive vehicle could pick us up there so we decided we would trek towards there tomorrow. The hut we were staying in was one of the smallest places I have ever spent the night. There were only 4 bunks so we all doubled up in the bunks and Michelle slept on the floor. WE woke at 5:15 and were out the door by 6, our breakfast consisted of granola bars and apples. We started off the day optomistic because most of the trek was going to be flat and we didn’t have to go that far. Then came the river. We had to cross it in order to get to the dirt road we were heading too. The water was absolutly freezing, instantly your feet were numb. The next 5 seconds they began to hurt, and the rest of the crossing was painful with every step. Michelle was a beast though and helped us all across in groups of 3 so she crossed about 10 times. This ordeal was soon passed us though as we trekked along the dewwy grass towards the pass where we would meet up to the road. Our pace also picked up considerably once we reached where the road began and started down it. Part of this was because of the flatter ground, and part because we started playing different games as we walked. Near lunch time we had to cross another river much to our distaste. This one was no warmer than the last, and the only difference was that it went up to your knees for most of it, and Ally was the one ferrying people accross. After the river we stopped for our repast and were enjoying the warm sun. At this point Michelle got a response on her SAT phone that the company didn’t actually have a 4WD vehicle and that we would need to go farther down the road to get to where they could pick us up. This was truely devastating news to most of us, especially the ones who were in pain as they were trekking. It turned out we had to go another 12 k’s till we would be picked up. Againwe lightened the packs of the two cripples and continued onwards. Thankfully the path was still pretty flat. Then came the uphill part. WE had about 5k’s up a mountain. The begginning wasn’t too stressful, but as the day wore on the grade became ever steeper. We must have been a sight, a long line of weary travelers toiling up the path with huge packs apon our back underneath the blazing sun. We did see a couple cars going down the mountain, our first real sight of civilization since we had started. They gave us words of encouragment and a few friendly words and were off. It was truely the most grueling part of the trek, but the feeling of accomplishment apon reaching the top and surverying the distance which we had come was outstanding. We wern’t done yet though, we still had to head to a point on the lake that was about 5 k’s away and part of it wouldn’t be across a track in order to be picked up. This was not a pleasnt part of the trek either. The ground was marshy, there were tall bushes to scramble through, and you got your feet wet a lot of the time. Apon everyone finally reaching the pick up point we all ate and immediatly fell asleep on the grass. When the bus came at 9 we loaded up and were driven to our drop in point for the rafting. We set up camp and passed out again. Now it’s rafting time. We split up into three different boats with all of our stuff inside trash bags so it hopefully wont get wet, and the trashbags inside our packs. This was all strapped down along with the food tubs and various other gear we had. We were doing all of this at 6:15 am. our saftey breifing lasted untill about 7:30 and then we were off. The water was swift and we moved at a good pace. We quickly learned that the rapids on this river wern’t class 4 or 5’s, but rather mostly 2’s and the rare 3. But the scenery was gorgeous and our guide was very interesting to talk to. He was 23 I believe and had some good stories. He also took our boat consisting of Sienna, Ally, Macy, and I down the most interesting course of the river. We hit most of the rocks and got stuck a few times. We much prefered this though as it was a lot of fun. We ate lunch at around 1 in teh campsite that they would normally use for the first night. We were doing this course which is normally a 5 day guided tour in 3 days so we were only stopping briefly. Back on the river at 2 for 5 more hours of paddleing to finally reach our campsite for the night. We cooked and set up the tarp right away for sleeping. Woke up at 7 the next morning as the porrage was still cooking. Ate, cleaned, and then it was back onto the river. Today followed the same pattern with us paddeling till around 1, having lunch, then paddeling for another 5 hours to our campsite. Again the scenery was amazing, soaring cliffs when we were in the gorge, and towering mountains in the distance. Today is the last day of the rafting portion of our free travel and really the last of our free travel in general. We got to the sea at around 2 in the afternoon. We cleaned, unloaded, and loaded the boats onto the trailor of the mini bus that was taking us back to the main base. We decided to stay the night at the main base, so we set up the tarps in the yard and cooked dinner. Throughout this we were all repacking our bags with everything we had left behind. None of us were ready for that night though. As all of us were wiped out we went to bed around 8:30ish. At 9 the first few raindrops began to fall. By 10:30 I had woken up and noticed my sleeping bag was soaked and so was my head. It was also pouring, and great flashes of lightning were streaking accross the sky. I made a quick decision and grabbed my stuff to run inside t osleep. When picking up my sleeping mat I noticed we were now residing under a sodden tarp in a large puddle. I woke up those next to me and suggested they make the dash inside as well, for if they didn’t it would be a long mostlikly miserable night for them. We all ended up inside exclaming how ridiculas that was, and then promptly passed out again on the concrete floor. The next morning we ate breakfast and cleaned up the base a little from our stay and then departed to pick up Shangu and Kitch who had opted out of the rafting because Kitch was still not feeling fell. After collecting them we headed for the airport. The flight was unremarkable besides the fact that we were heading to Sydney!! Everyone was psyched when we landed and was only slightly put out by the fact we hadn’t actually booked a place to stay yet. This was soon sorted though and we were comfortably ensconced at a place called Formula 1 only seconds from the heart of the city. That night was devoted to exploring the downtown area of the city. In the morning Ally, Macy, Michelle, and I decided that instead of staying in the city for that day and the next we were going up to the Blue Mountains National Park to do some hikes and relax. We caught a train up and took lodging at the Flying Fox. We got there in the early afternoon so we went out and saw the Three Sisters, or tried to anyway. It was very foggy so we could dimly make out the 3 towers of stone that made up the Three Sisters. We also went down along a path and an 800 step staircase which was mostly cut into the rock itself. This consequently led to us walking up 800 stairs at the end of our hike, but it was definitely worth it for it was a beautiful hike. The next morning Ally and I went on a 4 hour hike in the opposite direction we went the last day. It ended in a small town where we caught a train back to meet up with Michelle and Macy. We then proceeded to shop around the town we were in and then jumped on a train to head back to Sydney. Another night on the town for us exploring. We saw the Sydney Opera House, and also the Sydney Contemporary Art Museum which had some very interesting pieces inside. Tomorrow we head for the conservation center to help out with the environment. Untill then Adieu!