Day 6, Raetea to Blackbridge road.
It was a wet night but the rain had stopped when I woke up, however it started drizzling as I headed back to the forest with Erik.
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| Misty morning |
It was a real semi tropical rain forest this morning dark, dripping and very muddy. Excellent but extremely hard going.
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| Through the forest |
A very different walk to those I am used to but all the better for that even though it was full of roots to trip over, mud holes to fall into or squelch through and very steep bits with all of the above.
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| A bit squelchy |
Eventually we got down from the ridge and found a very poor campsite but it was too early to stop, although Erik was tempted. The only facility was a long drop singing toilet (no door) and rather muddy water from the stream.
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| The campsite I didn't like |
A short walk to the main road where we got a lift in a tiny car that was already full of dogs and stuff but the lady driver insisted that there was loads of space and proceeded to stuff us and our packs in. Very generous, and it saved 6km of walking on the main road when she dropped us off at our turning.
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| Rural view from the road |
It was a lovely walk then on a good gravel roads that got smaller as we turned off the bigger roads until reaching the Blackbridge road, which is really a track, and a further 4km to the DOC campsite that had water, a toilet and a very good cooking shelter.
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| Gravel road walking |
Here we met Darren from Wales who had started from the Cape the same day as us and Megan and and Eve from London who had started a day earlier.
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| Cooking shelter at the campsite |
It turned into a rather damp evening, but I suppose it wouldn't be a rain forest without rain.
