Journal:
It was windy and rained heavily during the night,
but had cleared up by morning and the wind had
mostly dried the tent. I woke up at 7am and
had breakfast and packed by 8:30am on what was
already a warmish, but breezy day.
The morning route was
virtually entirely cross-country and involved
climbing steadily up to Knockfin Heights (~400m), a
large featureless plateau of peat bogs, then
crossing the plateau and descending the other side.
Navigation was a little tricky, but the good
visibility helped me avoid mistakes. However,
negotiating the peat bogs and hags was tiring and tedious and it
was noon by the time I finally reached a track on
the other side of the plateau. There were some
deer herds around and I did encounter a small (1m)
green and black hooped snake.
The afternoon turned into
a steady trudge along 4WD tracks and gravel roads in
countryside which gradually flattened out and
gradually turned from moorland to pastoral.
There wasn't much to see, and my motivation was low,
but
I just kept plodding along, knowing that each step
today was a step less for tomorrow. I figured
that if I had a reasonably long day today, then
tomorrow would turn into a half day into Watten,
where I had pre-booked a hotel room.
Around 6pm, having reached
the last place the guide-book suggested I would find
a place to camp, I started
looking for somewhere to stop and found a rough spot
shortly after and set up the tent in a strong wind
which made it difficult. The ground is
tussocky, and I have a couple of bad lumps under the
floor of the tent that I will have to sleep around.
