Surprisingly, after grumpily listening to kids riding quad bikes around the campsite, I got to sleep around 9pm and slept soundly. It was quiet around the campsite after all.
I was off at 7am - the goal today was to reach Historic #10 Campsite, 26km away. It was a relatively east walk to start with.
 |
| More bridges! |
 |
| Nice gently trails - mostly slightly downhill! |
 |
| Cyclists occasionally passing by |
I also realised that much of my hiking to date had been a bit of a slog, and I made sure to take more breaks today to appreciate my surroundings. “Psithurism” by Michael Woodman (Thumpermonkey lead singer!) is one of my favourite albums of 2022, psithurism being the sound of the wind in the trees. The songs are too complex for me to sing along too very well - but I appreciated the stillness, and listening to the forest.
 |
| Psithurism |
 |
| Yet another bridge! |
Along the way, a milestone: 1000km since Cape Reinga. I’m a third of the way down the Te Araroa!
 |
| 1000km since Cape Reinga! |
Today I was thinking a lot about the days ahead, in particular about tight deadlines involving the Tongariro Crossing and the Whanganui River kayak. I was making good progress today, so I started to wonder - maybe I could continue on past my planned campsite, and carry on the remaining 18km to the end of the Timber Trail. I know a number of TA hikers do it; and it would give me a valuable day up my sleeve to give me more options later. I was feeling reasonably good when I reached #10 Campsite, so decided to try and give this a go.
Several kilometres on, I started to think my decision was rather rash. It had been cool and shady for a lot of the morning, but by late afternoon it was blisteringly hot, and the trail was more exposed. I had energy from my lunch, and the trail was easy and downhill - but my feet were aching badly. Not much psithurism now, I was focused just on putting one foot in front of the other.
There was one last treat in store on the trail - the Ongarue Spiral. Today’s route in the Timber Trail follows the tram line used by loggers to haul logs out of the forest many years ago, and part of this was a spiral railway line. The rails are long gone, but the trail follows the spiral, and loops back under itself through a tunnel. Not long, but pitch black inside.
 |
| About to pass through the Ongarue Spiral tunnel |
 |
| …and out the other side |
After this, just pain. It was about 9 km more to the campsite at the end, and the last 6km especially were very hard. The sun was searing even though it was early evening, my feet were painful and my legs ached. I needed to sit by the trail for a while to recover, and let the sun sink lower.
 |
| Recovering by the trail. Still searing hot at 7pm! |
Eventually at 7:30pm I staggered into the Ongarue campsite, the end of the Timber Trail. Today was easily my longest daily effort, 42km according to my app, and 12.5 hours.
There were a lot of tents in the small campsite, it turned out many were TA hikers - most had decided to cycke through the Timber Trail rather than walking, which is why I didn’t notice them en route. They shouted me a ginger beer (the best I’ve ever had!), but I didn’t have the energy to stop and chat. I set up my tent amongst theirs, and collapsed straight into my sleeping bag. What a day!
 |
| So many TA tents! |
 |
Today’s route
|
No comments:
Post a Comment