During the night Anna had to pack away her food more carefully because the mice were (apparently) extremely active and physically jumping onto stuff to get to our food. My 2 food backs (obviously I meant ‘bags’ 😅 I do write this at the end of every and it’s just too funny to correct it) were hanging, but I did realise that there were some bars left in my hip pocket. So I grabbed them and put them right next to my head. As I wasn’t wearing earplugs I (thought) I would hear them coming. But no, too tired and too fast a sleep, so they did nibble on my Snickers bar. Why do they always go for chocolate?! That bummed me more out than the fact a mouse was right next to my head.
The American Thomas left about half an hour before Anna and I. I waved the Nobo Kiwi family goodbye. They were so inspiring and I’m slightly jealous. Although technically I’m also walking with my whole household, which consists of one person.
The way to Slaty Hut was so gorgeous. We both enjoyed it immensely and made the doc-predicted time. On the whole, I’m a little bit faster compared to Anna, but she beats me on the downhill. But I think I am also used to longer days of hiking. But we chatted about our lives and some cringy boyfriend incidents (she beats me at that aspect as my cringy moments are often self-inflicted). I appreciated the company and time flew by.
At Slaty Hut, we saw Thomas again. Pretty confused we saw him because I assumed he was further ahead of us. Unfortunately, he lost his way and climbed straight up the hill where the official trail curves around it. If it wasn’t bad enough he also broke a pole. The second day in a row I saw fresh blood on his arms.
After a snack break, we continued, and walking on the ridge was spectacular. Beautiful views in both valleys and the daunting sight of Litte Rintoul and Mount Rintoul.
The second part became suddenly more technical with steep but short ascents and descents. It took a little longer to reach the junction to Old Man Hut, but we made it. From there it’s a 200m descent which we have to climb before we can climb the Rintouls (jeej), but after 3:45 pm we arrived at the hut and enjoyed our downtime with washing, card games, food, and two episodes of the Big Bang theory.
After another big dinner (almost finished my first 0,5kg of pasta) we hung everything there was to hang. Hopefully, they leave my face alone. Night night
Ps I only remembered that yesterday I ate a Beschuitje with cheese!
Zilla-in-the-wild 