Date: Monday, 12 April 2011
Kilometres: 15.4 AAWT
Total kilometers: 659.6 AAWT
Animals: birds, kangaroos
People: Three day hikers and one
runner
Weather: Cold and partly cloudy
in the morning, sunny later
Campsite: Namadgi National Park
Visitors Centre, Tharwa, ACT (finish of the AAWT)
Camp location:
http://maps.google.com/maps?q=-35.53171,+149.06514
Pictures:
https://picasaweb.google.com/byrnesinoz/AAWT2011Day2811April?authkey=Gv1sRgCJiS2KOb89T_vQE
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, 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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