We woke on Monday morning to snow at Shannon. While there was definitely a chill in the air the day looked quite clear and walking beckoned. The repair job on the car looked OK and Merran was happy to drive it home from Blackwood Creek. I felt that if I didn’t bite the bullet today, I would get too far behind and find restarting a challenge. Back to the trail it was to be. We nipped in to the Penstock Campsite at Athurs Lake and set up my tent in the hope that I might, even with a late start, pull off a 29km day including 1260m climbing and 600m downhill. I called my associate Luke and he agreed to be a standby pickup person if I really was not going to make it.
The Caves track involves a creek crossing right at the start. There is a bit of time lost in drying feet and pulling on hiking socks and shoes – this done I was on my way. The track is quite a fun walk and was the original road up onto the Tiers before the Poatina hydro works were built in the 1950s. The ‘caves’ of the track are a series of sandstone overhangs which are quite impressive. With so much water around they were also home to several waterfalls. I really enjoyed this section of the trail and got to the top around midday. A quick breather in my trusty helinox chair and I was ready to put down some serious kms (22) in the afternoon.
I thought it wise to push lunch back a bit and try to get 7-8 kms complete before resting and eating, Poatina Road to Arthurs Lake is a long walk which I had, again, not been looking forward to. Again it turned out not to be too bad and there was not a lot of traffic to contend with. Lunch stop at the Cramps Bay turnoff for those who know it.
Marching on for much of the afternoon, I got to the Jonah bay road which enabled me then to follow a hydro tower maintenance road through to the campsite about 5 kms away. There were lots of deer tracks around the road verges as I walked, although I missed seeing any. The only catch with this quiet road was an unexpected weir crossing. So, changing back to my river crossing ‘crocs’ to get through and back into my walking shoes for the second time – this time to finish the day. I made the campsite by 6.00pm, cooked dinner and settled in for the night. No one else in a large campsite! Perhaps it was the wind and cold keeping them away.
