Monday 4 June

Another good sleep. I emerged from my tent st 6.30 and slowly packed up. I retrieved my food bag, visited the loo and I was ready to go

I hoisted up my pack and walked out of the camp. the trail was fairly flat for the first several miles, I crossed over a  bridge with nice campsites. Hindsight is wonderfull,  I could of pushed on yesterday and got to any of these making today’s milage shorter but I was happy with my 22 as I thought yesterday was tough.

I pushed on passing several hikers. one hiker called Peewee reminded me that this was the last water for a while so I decided to grab another litre.
The trail now began to climb and climb, it took me  2 hrs before I  reached the top. At the top was a  bench to sit down , which i needed ,thank god.
The next part of the trail  was nice and gentle and so  I  was able to crunch the miles, however I knew  that i had a big  climb later.
I crossed another large bridge and decided to fill up with water before the next climb. althouhgh i hate dragging water  up climbs
I then began my climb , as i  climbed  the  sun began to roast  me and so i was glad of the extra water  , it was hot so bloody hot,  hopefully i would  enter the forest soon  and shade. Up and  up i  climbed . my watch counting down the hours
I heard voices  and as I came around a corner I saw Half-Way, Lost & Found and another hiker resting. I decided to stop too,  take  lunch and enjoy the view.
After lunch I set off towards the Dragons tooth but  the trail  was begining to annoy  me. Once again it was  lots of “PUDS”   (pointless ups and downs ) as they were indeed pointless  although occasionally I got a great view .
I pushed on, climbing up and down . The ups  where large rocks that I had to scale . to me this was not hiking ….more mountaineering
My feet began to  hurt as I navigated over this  rock.  At last i began to decend .The decent was not easy  as  it was all hands and a lot shuffling on my arse as it was scary in places but also exhilarating and exciting.
Half way down I met a lady called Elaine and her dog who she had to lift down in places. As  i reached the car park I said good bye and carried on . and once again i was soon  clambering over rock..omg Arrrh. at last the rock turned into a nice trail and I was able to speed up down to the road.

Once there I turned right and walked up.the road.

I was heading to  3pines hostel , as i walked up the road i noticed  green trees  painted on the road . Good im going in the right direction
Eventually   I found the hostel .
There were several hikers  schilling  outside , Thee was room inside  so  i grabbed a bunk.
It was a bit  tatty  and  dirty  but  when  your  hiking a bunk is a bunk.
There were rides to  the garage /store  later so while i waited I bumbed a beer and sat in the sun chilling.
as i sat relaxing   familar faces began to appear,  and was good  to actch up with  the gossip.
I  bagged a seat on the next ride  to  the store  I ordered a pizza  and  beer and a few  extra days food, and a tub of ice cream
Once back I tucked into my pizza and beer before devouring my ice cream.
We  chilled on the sofas  in the Converted garage  untill someone turned off the lights

Guess that means  bed time

Start 687
Finish 704
mileage 20 miles
Remaining 1486 Miles