Saturday 1st May 2021
Well, time for our first overnight hike since my heart surgery. How will I go is the big question. We have joined a few friends this time – Ange and Alice from the surf club and Alice’s brother Will. We are looking forward to an amazing couple of days hiking.

The weather was perfect for hiking, the sun shone brightly and the company was great. We headed off at 9.45 for what was to be a big day, with many hill climbs and heavy packs. Our first big climb was to Macha Tor and Febar Tor lookouts where we saw our first good views of the Breadknife. We then hiked up to Balor Hut, which was a pretty hard slog. We decided to leave our packs at the junction of Balor Hut track and the main track and head up to the Breadknife and Grand High Tops with just a lunch pack. This made for a much more pleasant hike even though it meant back tracking a bit, this was definitely one of my better ideas. After an enjoyable walk with plenty of time to enjoy the views, we headed back down to Balor Hut, refilled some water bottles from the tank and made out way to Dows Camp for the night.

A great day followed by an enjoyable night by the fire. Well I survived my first heavy pack hike after heart surgery.

13.56km 6hrs 57mins, elevation loss 347m, elevation gain 794m, maximum altitude 794m.