I knew the day had a forecast of strong winds and rain but as some Scotsman says there's no such thing as bad weather just bad preparation. So I donned all my wet weather gear including the pants and headed out to a fairly beautiful morning if not a bit blowy.
The walk out of Spalding is through some fields and then back onto the channel. After walking for nearly two hours the channel meets up with the highway again and I saw the 5k to Spalding sign. I checked my InReach and I had done nearly 7.5k to reach the same point...Oh well...on I go. Onto some back country roads through the farming areas to reach the Brown Hill Range.
This was where the map said I would be following a Stone wall for 12 kilometres across the ridge of the Range. The wall is interesting in that, why? I can see if they were picking up rocks and getting them off the paddocks but to actually stack them into a wall?. Fence maybe. A lot of it had fallen down but it did have enough left that kangaroos sheltered behind them out of the wind. If I wanted to sit then all the best bits had knee deep poo behind it so they had been used for a long time. The wind at that stage had picked up to the expected 35kph and I was getting it at least slightly from the rear. So I hoiked the pack up and plodded my way up and down the paddocks for the next 12 kilometres to what is marked as a camp spot at Whistling Trigg.
It wasn't until I got behind the water tank at the Trigg that I realised how much I must have been leaning to the left into the wind. As soon as I got into the lee of the tank I stumbled left and hit the seat. I stopped there to eat and fill up with some water as there was no way I could camp anywhere near there and it would have to be a very special day when I think any one could. It is just so exposed. The map said there was a quarry further down a road where the track eventually drops off the ridge line.
It was such a pleasure to get out of the wind on the road over the range. The quarry was a bust as it was still a working quarry so I trudged on further looking for anything that promised to be flat and protected. The storm they predicted was coming in and all I had for the next 10 kilometres or so was roads. It looked like I was going to set-up the tent on the side of the road, Not a bad problem just not ideal. But the weather held off long enough for me to get to a station track that at least let me get about 1 or 200 metres off the road. I was looking at some spots and even contemplating walking all the way to Hallett which was another 4 hours away when a thunder clap decided it was time to set up.
I was about 5 minutes too slow as I got drenched whilst setting the tent up but at least I was better protected from the wind. A little bit of hail and the temperature dropped dramatically and I froze all night. Had managed to walk about 35 kilometres so sleeping wasn't much of a problem.
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