The Walking Dom

Feb 29

Feb 29 To Bluff on tippy toes

Colac Bay to Bluff
Mile 1864 / KM 3000

Audiobook of the week: 'Escape from Jonestown’ by Laurence Bouvard

Podcast of the day: 'Uninformed' by Bill Burr and Joe Derosa

Song stuck in my head: 'Everything Has Changed’ by Lucero

I miss: Nothing at all. I’ve got everything I need in my pack.

We had a late start out of Colac Bay and the wind was pretty strong and chilly when we got down to the beach, so we got into our rain gear right away which is not exactly a ’good look’. We call Chris’s brown washed-out hat the ‘birth control hat’ because it’s so unbelievably unattractive. I love the form over fashion mentality on trail though. It literally does not matter how you look, as long as you’re dry and warm you’re good to go. My desert shirt for example, it is absolutely disgusting and I’ll have to burn it before going back to society. Having hiked in it for almost four months it has become a threat to mankind.

We had about 70km left to go. First to Riverton and then back to the beach to Invercargill, then to Bluff. There's this one last river crossing on the beach, only doable during low tide and I'm still confused how we were able to fuck up the math, but we did. When we got to the river, the water was already up to my pack. I tried to walk on my tippy toes to save it from getting soaked, but of course I had no chance. All of my things were stowed away in dry-bags so no big deal, but now there's a thin layer of salt on everything.

Chris and Meghan had met this lovely Kiwi couple, Kathy and Roger a couple of weeks ago, who invited us to stay with them in Invercargill. I hadn't even met them but they took me in as if we were old friends. I slept in their daughter’s bedroom in a real bed with a thick blanket and three non-blow-up pillows. It was heaven on earth. Roger gave us a tour around the bush while Kathy casually cooked up a feast. The first home cooked meal I had in months. It was wonderful.

The last stretch from Invercargill to Bluff is kind of crappy, to be honest. The trail winds through an industrial area and then you're back on highway 1 for the last kilometers. Did I care? Not a bit. No 18 wheeler was going to kill my vibe and when we got to Sterling Point we opened a bottle of champagne, smoked cigars and scratched lottery tickets. It was perfect. I was sad and happy at the same time, and for a moment I though about turning around and doing it all over again. I’m going to miss this. I’m going to miss eating ramen with Fred at the beach. I’m going to miss stopping on the trail for the 5th time in an hour with Chris to look at bees. I’m going to miss Alex’s ‘Have a lovely night’ before going to bed and I’m going to miss Cami saying ‘Sauce’ the way only she can.