We left early and circled around Lake Hawea to enter the very steep past of today.
Ben wanted to leave his backpack here and only go up to the peak and returning to circle around the mountain through the valley to take pressure of his knee. So we set off and climbed the first 350m in 30 minutes making our way through scratchy farns. When we reached the top we could see Ben making his way up as well – with his backpack. Change of plans! The trail continued over a steep ridge but was beautiful.
Fortunately the clouds were lifting a little bit so we could at least see over the lake.
After reaching the hut we had lunch and waited for Ben to catch up. A Finish girl gave us a lot of insights on the upcoming sections but also kept us in the hut for over an hour.
We continued over an fairly easy track – skipped breast hill since it was in the clouds – and reached the highest point for today at around 1500m before descending down to the Stody’s Hut.
The hut was quiet old with a dirt floor but still nice. Since we were eight two couples pitched their tents and we had enough room for all. A long day ended with our first game of Tarot that Ben introduced to us. Hand made playing cards in co-production with Breann. Reminds me lot on Skat…
A long day ended early in the sleeping bag. 22km and a lot of elevation!
