Pine Valley Bushwalk Part 2

Wednesday, 12 March 2014

Day 2 and it was time to say goodbye to Kylie and Dari who were staying another night at Pine Valley, and saddle up and hit the trail again.  We were anticipating a long day of walking but we were all in good spirits and the kids were especially excited by the thought of getting back to our drop-box full of extra food!  To make the day more do-able we'd broken up the walk into sections. The first part was back out through the enchanted forest and then over the various bridges..

A steady pace and a number of stops later and we were back at Narcissus. Our return journey had taken just over 3 hours - almost an hour quicker than the day before. We'd promised the kids a big long break and lunch when we got there so we rested and relaxed and I took the two photos I took for the trip..

Fuelled by lunch and with the promise of frequent stops, we set off for the last stretch of the day - the 6.5kms along the lake to Echo Point.   We'd agreed that we'd stop every half an hour, then after 2 sets of that we'd then stop every 15 minutes until we got there.

There was only one casualty of this trip.. jon's shorts...from then on we had to make sure Jon brought up the rear of our group.

After 2 hours of walking, and 45 minutes of resting along the way, we arrived at Echo Point.

The last time I was at Echo Point was when Clare and I ran the trail back from Narcissus to Cynthia Bay around 20 years ago, and the time before that was a few years earlier when Clare and I and two friends walked the overland track ourselves.  When we ran it I remember finding the constant tree roots and small up and downs a hassle, but this time (at a slower pace!) I really enjoyed the every part of the walk. The forest was beautiful and the path was sprinkled with leatherwood flower petals much of the way - in fact they were everywhere. When the wind blew, they'd swirl around in the air like confetti - it's hard to tell as the water is so clear, but this is a photo of them surrounding a rock in a small stream. 

Anyway - arriving at Echo Point was great. The kids were delighted to have made it.  A 16ish kilometre day is equal to the longest day of of the overland track trek so it was a great effort and we were all rewarded with the bestest camping spot ever. 

They've built a new jetty since I was last there and because the lake was so low we were able to camp on the beach (rather than in the dark forest) which was just idyllic.  We set up camp and then sat on the jetty to enjoy the last rays of the afternoon sun.

 ..and the kids got to have the toast cooked on the trangia that they'd been looking forward to for days!  

Actually while we were there we chatted to two Victorian guys who'd been walking for 10 days (and were being picked up by the ferry from Echo Point the next day).  They showed us what people use as camp stoves nowadays (we're a couple of generations of cookware behind with the metholated spirits technology!) and it was very impressive. They also lamented the fact that they had a completely dry trip so they weren't able to use their expensive gortex gear that they had brought with them. Of course if they'd started their trip just a day earlier it would have been a different story as on that day a walker had tragically perished just a few hours out of Cradle Mountain in exactly the sort of weather you have to carry all that gear for. 

Luckily for us it was another warm and beautiful night.  We didn't have the energy to do any stargazing, so it was just early to bed and quickly to sleep for our tired legs and minds!