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It rained during the night and I slept fitfully, probably in
anticipation of finishing my trek. Everything was very wet when I
got up at 5:30am and I transferred all my gear to the camp picnic
shelter before packing and breakfasting. I was on my way on a very
cool and sunny morning by 7:30am.
The single-track hiking trail through the Eucalypt forest was
very nice apart from those sections where it was a bit overgrown
with sopping wet scrub and I was soon very wet and quite cold too. I
resisted the temptation to stop and put on my clothes, deciding to
walk briskly to warm up instead. I was sure it would warm up a bit
in the next hour or so, and so it did. The scenery was a mix of
forest dotted with huge boulders before the trail moved out into
pasturelands belonging to an old farm that was now part of the
Namadgi NP dominated by the towering Mt Tennent (1384m).
The last part of the hike involved more nice single track onto
the slopes of Mt Tennent then a long descent, involving a lot more
steps than my knees would have liked to Tharwa and the Namadgi
Visitors Centre, and the end of my hike.
I arrived just after noon and was greeted by a friendly NP ranger
who prepared a laminated AAWT Finisher Certificate for me and a free
cup of coffee. Not long afterwards, my cousin-in-law, Chris, turned
up to drive me into Canberra from where I will catch a train back to
Sydney tomorrow. I am sad that the hike is over, but looking forward
to seeing my loved ones again, and to some of the benefits of
civilization - hot showers, junk food, TV, en-suites, etc. No doubt
I will soon be thinking nostalgically back to the good times on the
AAWT, and there were many.
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