The weather was ideal, apart from about 5 drops of rain before first light this morning, and the paddocks are always a great place to visit.
I met Corvus at the car park and we walked in together, arriving at our chosen camp site at about 12:30pm, which was a relief, because I'd packed a heavy load, including 10 fresh apples, and a bottle of wine.
It was a good choice of site (thanks to those who recommended it to us!). After lunch, we wandered up to Lees Hut to pay our respect to the owners and their friends who were there, and to say g'day to Gorby who was among them. Then back to the camp site where I sat by the river and read a few chapters of a book.
The river flows over rocks at this point into a very deep pool (maybe 3 or 4 metres deep? It's hard to tell), and it's particularly beautiful when there's no wind and the sun lights up the rocks below the clear, deep water.
Taswaterfalls arrived a little before dinner time, so there was only the three of us for the Saturday night, which is probably just as well, because we might have run out of drinks, otherwise.
Sunday was another day of perfect weather, but we had a late start, which ruled out walking to Kia Ora. Instead, Corvus and I had a leisurely stroll up the river as far as Wadley's Hut (while Taswaterfalls had to walk back out, unfortunately). We stopped at Ladder Falls on the way, which had a small trickle of water flowing over the cascades, which are very beautiful, even with the small amount of water. We saw several fish in the Mersey while walking through the last forest stretch, and met several other walkers during the day, on our way to Wadley's and Back.
Just before getting back to the camp site we ran into FlyFisher, who accompanied us back to the camp site where he set up his tent. I then had a quick swim in the deep pool in the river next to the camp site. Quick being the operative word. It was COLD.
I love walking with any size group, and sometimes a smaller group is better, but at this point, I must admit that I was hoping that more people had turned up, and I was a little disappointed that it was only going to be three of us again on the second night. But then along comes TasTrekker to save the day, as well as Mrs TasTrekker, and the 3 little TasTrekker tackers. Having the five of them join the group made for a good sized party, and the kids were fantastic. It was great to see them having so much fun.
This morning (Monday), the TasTrekker group had to head out straight after brekky, as they had other commitments this afternoon. The remaining three of us, had no urgent commitments, and decided it would be worth waiting for our tents to dry in the sun (after heavy dew, and few drops of overnight rain), and we eventually started walking at 11:15am.
All in all, it was a leisurely walk, and I really enjoyed spending time with several people from the forums out in the bush. Each of them was completely different to what I expected, and yet come to think of it, I really don't know what I expected. They were all easy to get along with, and I enjoyed walking with them.
I know there were others here who wanted to come, but were not able make it. I'm sorry that you guys/girls missed out, and I hope to meet more of you in the future. Maybe next year. In any case, there's plenty of other walking to be done before then!
Some of you may think it's heresy, but I didn't even carry a camera, so I have no photos of the event that I can post. I hope some of the other guys will post their photos in the Gallery forum (and please chime in here with more about the weekend if I've missed anything out).
