CDT30
24th May Wednesday
22miles (35kms)
Last night we camped next to a waterhole where cattle drink, early morning it became cold and on the outside of my sleeping bag it was damp, Ken reckoned it’s because of the nearby water, I was thinking it was the condensation. But lucky for me, the sun hit my tent first and gave me warmth which in turn, got me motivation to start packing up and making coffee.
We are now above 9,000feet (2,800metres) following foot prints of many like us on this trail. We counted ourselves lucky as the foot prints that looked to be a couple of days old told a story of mud and slippery conditions, whereas for us it’s a calm cloudless sky and it’s only when we get to the peaks of the hills that we feel the wind blowing, but still, we were wearing light tops.
In the last hour of the day when our energy levels were low from walking uphill all day, we once again had to navigate our way through a forest with many dead trees blown over, and to top it off, we had to ford a river waist height and cold from the surrounding snow melts. Finally we got to our target camp site with picnic tables and flat ground to lay our tents out. At the elevation of 10,100 feet, when the sun hide behind clouds, trees or setting behind the mountain, the temperature drops and tonight I’ll be wearing everything in my new super sleeping bag.