Tors of Dartmoor Blog
You can make the best preparations possible, fine tune everything to the minutest detail, but, at the end of the day, you are always at the mercy of the weather. Sitting off the south-west coast of Australia, in the mighty Southern Ocean, there have been a monotonous succession of low fronts that, for August and […]
I expected the last week of preparation to be a little more hectic, but I have managed to get virtually everything done with time to spare and I have been able to focus my attention on issues at work and home. There was one matter I couldn’t help but tinker with, though; my choice of […]
On the 27 September 2013, I start out on a journey of 1000 km, walking the Bibbulmun Track, in South-Western Australia, to raise money for Epilepsy Action. Below is a list of the gear I will take; Pack System Item Make Weight (g) Rucksack Lowe Alpine TFX Kibo 65 Litre 1830 1830 Shelter System […]
Another week laid low with some pesky chest complaint left me with the opportunity to put together this little piece exploring how I’ll be blogging on the Bibbulmun Track and keeping everyone back home up to date on my progress. Google Nexus 7 For a while, it seemed as if I was searching for a […]
I had a terrible night. My left arm was in a constant state of being either dead, or having pins and needles, and I just couldn’t get comfortable. I was happy to be finishing today. Keen to get underway today, I returned the books to the Ranger, and left the hut just before 8 am. […]
On top form today, I left Kia Ora at 8.10 am, in sunny but muggy weather. The majority of today was through rain forest and my first stop was at a clearing where Du Cane Hut sat, before re-entering the forest. This section has a number of side trips, to waterfalls, but I wasn’t too […]
When I awoke, first thing I noticed was the humidity. The hut was surrounded in a mist, and with the prospect of a climb up through rainforest, I wasn’t looking forward to this first section. This was a tough one for me today. I stopped countless times, exhausted, soaking with sweat. The forest was dark, […]
The longest distance today; 16.75 km, and I was up at first light. I was in my element! Moorland and mist for the early part of the morning, it could have been Dartmoor with duckboards, for all I knew! The air was cool, perfect for walking, and I happily ate up the distance across Pine […]
Common consensus amongst everyone in the hut was that they were all going to skip Windermere Hut and crack on to New Pelion. This meant that, unless any of today’s starters skipped Waterfall Valley, I was in for a quiet night! I set off about 8:30 am. It was a short leg of 7.75 km […]
9am – Started in the rain, accompanied by a bushwalker setting off on the Horse Track for a day walk. The weather soon cleared up and we soon parted company at a junction, as I laboured up to Crater Lake. One thing was abundantly clear; I was going to struggle! Many would argue that an […]