Tuesday 1st June 2021
After another cold night it was time to pack up and make our way out as we knew it would take us almost as long to go downhill 7km as it did to go up on the first day. And we still had a 5 hour drive home.
What a descent – it was tough to have our heavy packs on, albeit a couple of kilos lighter for having eaten most of our food. We still had the same challenges on the way down as on the way up, rocks to climb over, down and through, trees to negotiate, cliff edges, wrong turns, and the general steep steps down, always a little harder on your body than the steps up. We all kept going and going and going. Four hours later we made it back to the car. We were very happy hikers, thrilled with our achievements over the last 4 days.
After getting back in the car, we decided to share one last gourmet meal (Haloumi, sweet potato, turkey rissoles and peperonata sauce) at the Forestry Campground just up the road. Yummy!. It was a great idea as by this stage it was 2pm and we still had a long drive home. We though we would get on the road by 3pm but we finally got away about 3.45. Fully satisfied and ready to talk all the way home about this adventure and the next. What a great long weekend shared with great friends in the most amazing National Park.
Hope you enjoy our adventure!
- Another beautiful sunrise at Cooyoyo camp..
- ..on my own this morning.
- Dave checking the satellite phone for messages and giving me lessons on how to use it, yet again!
- Another view from our camp as we head back to the car, although we start with a 500m steep hill climb with many, many steps to get our hearts pumping.
- Little signs in the rocks to assist us along the way..
- ..a little wrong turn and back track to keep us on our toes..
- ..lucky our packs are a couple of kilos lighter as we have eaten most of our food..
- ..still some challenges along the way..
- ..up and over rock shelves..
- ..with a little natural refreshment.
- After 7.3km and 4 hours of negotiating some more difficult terrain we make it back to the lush jungle..
- ..and relish the opportunity to remove our shoes and wash our feet in the extremely cold Clyde River, knowing we only have 200m to go.
- A very happy group of campers, rock climbers and rope conquerors. Exuberant with our achievements.
- Finishing off with a hot, gourmet meal with spectacular scenery before heading home to plan the next adventure.
- It was a glorious feeling to have a camp bath before heading home.
- Day 4 – 7.3km, just over 4 hours, 586m elevation loss, 114m elevation gain and we are done and dusted!!