Got up and it was cold cold cold and everything was wet. There is a way to pack up the tent that means the last things I have to do is the groundsheet and the wet outer fly of the tent. Everything else is packed into the pack whilst sitting under cover. I am either tired or just getting old when it takes a few rocks on my ever diminishing backside to get the momentum to stand up.
Moved off this morning to a walk in the wet grass of the paddocks towards Hallett. My gloves frosted over after I started walking which was just as the sun was coming up so I think it got colder after I got up. After a couple of kilometres it was a walk down a couple of roads towards the town. It's the last straight stretch of road that made me realise how slow walking can be. You can see the silos of the town down the road but what would take you 5 or 10 minutes in a car is a hour trudge as nothing seems to get closer as you look up.
At the end of the road the trail takes a right to the old Hallett Rail Station which has been converted to a hikers hut or turn left for bacon and egg rolls and coffee. The hut is about 1 kilometre from the coffee and 500 metres from the intersection. You may need to forgive but I turned left and never set foot in the old rail station.
The general store had coffee, breakfast, fire and conversation with something other than a stuffed monkey. After the bacon and egg roll I spied a packet of Arnott's Lemon Crisp biscuits on the shelf. Not a packet of Monte Carlos but what is a scruffy beggar to do but get another coffee and the biscuits and sit down and demolish half a packet. The belt was loosened one notch, pack on and then off to tackle the walk over Mt Bryan.
The walk is a pleasant stroll along a road until it turns off through a property to wander up the Mundy Valley. All the while you can see the hills rising. Then the climb starts and goes up and up and up. Just when you get up you go across and then look at the climb that goes up and up and up Mt Bryan and guess what you get as you start to climb but the wind. Some of you may sympathise and understand when in this ever present cold wind going for a pee becomes a problem when I am sure body parts deliberately hide and don't want to come out and do the deed. Sending in cold fingers doesn't help.
Mt Bryan was named after a bloke in one of the explorers party that became lost and died of thirst. A comforting thought. After getting to the top I didn't find too may areas where I could get out of the wind, so took a few quick snaps then moved off the top into the lee of the wind. I am glad I came up the way I did as the way down looked like I should be abseiling not walking. At least is was quick . If I had fallen I am sure it would have been quicker.
Once down the hill its a fast pace down a road to the East Mt Bryan school that's been converted to a hikers hut. There are still blackboards on one side and three rooms on the other side that belonged to the school teacher.
I made a cup of tea and ate the rest of the biscuits had a sweet curry and rice roll-up in front of a fire and set up my bed on a double mattress ad had the best nights sleep on the trail so far while the wind howled. It might have been I was well fed or is the 3rd or 4th approx 30 k day. My last zero day was Melrose which was a week ago and with 2 more days it will be 10 or 11 days without a break.
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