Day 10: Bush bashing at its finest - the not so proud moments

There's a certain charm to waking up early, fueled by optimism and determination, setting off into uncharted territory whilst realising that my navigator had not synchronised the full routes.

That's exactly how our journey began—a rainy day and a shortcut to Stoney Creek on the east side of the Murray River, a route that promised scenic beauty. I had a physical map that promised a path across the Murray River to Stoney creek so I felt reassured that we would get there somehow!

The walk was green with lots of wild life. We saw deer, brumbies, kangaroos by the hundreds, and even an emu - I was not expecting an emu here.

As we relied on the map, we anticipated reaching a plain grass track that led directly to Stoney Creek Campground. But it did not arrive and we kept veering further away from the Murray.

Instead, we found a brumbies track. My navigator reassured me that we were running parallel to the campground, so we decided to bush bash to our destination. What started as a fairly easy path quickly turned into a dense and daunting adventure— our shortcut unraveled into a maze of trees and sticks and scrub. Remember, we were carrying a 20kg pack!! There was no going back! Tension was rising high and I regretted veering into the bush but putting on a brave face for Cy.

We could hear the Murray River in front of us, but to my dismay, a steep and muddy cliff blocked our path. I was quite worried as the rain created a slippery slide along the steep cliff and the bush was dense making it hard to navigate with my heavy pack.

But Cy was in his element this time, he loves climbing and is fearless in this regard, and he guided me, cm by cm, down this treacherous cliffside. It was actually quite hard to capture the steepness in video. We landed calf deep into a mud pit, our shoes completely buried.

With mud-soaked boots and rain-drenched clothes, we finally reached the riverbank. We trudged through the Murray and battled through more bush bashing to arrive at Stoney Creek Campground. The rain had picked up!

There was no shelter at stoney creek campsite and we quickly ate and hydrated before embarking our journey onto Harrington track. My navigator by this time was useless as it had not mapped out the Harrington track. We ventured about 5 km into Harrington track and the track quickly became dense with vegetation making it hard to hike with trekking poles as they kept getting stuck in the high grass.

We stopped by a small creek to filter some more water and this is where hundreds of leeches came down on us. They were crawling on our equipment, arms, face, ears. I had never seen so many leeches at once. I tried to remove them before they would latch onto us but they were pesky and sticky. I am not too bothered about leeches but given their numbers, I was concerned that one might end up in our nose or ear and difficult to remove once filled with our blood.

Then came the tree—a fallen giant over 30 meters long and chest-high, with no way around. Cy climbed it first but I felt I needed ropes and guides to conquer this beast. Behind the tree, we could not make out our track from a brumby track as it was so densely overgrown with vegetation. I could see Cy’s worry and we had just experienced some hefty bush bashing.

Rain, leeches, exhaustion, and a failed GPS all combined made this route tricky to conquer. With safety our priority, Cy and I both decided to turn back to Tom Groggin and reevaluate, risking dire straits is not our mission and we still had a 2200 km row/paddle in front of us!

The journey back to Tom Groggin via Stoney Creek Track was no less challenging. Hills tested our endurance, bush bashing left its mark—my arms were cut, our feet soaking wet and we felt exhausted. The hike was long with not much progress. We had been hiking for 10 hours straight!

As darkness approached, we reached Tom Groggin, set up camp, and ate. We had a quick wash.

Tim and Beverley provided moral support from the distance, knowing the importance of sleep before making new plans.

We agreed on a rest day next day to properly reassess our hike, we had come so far already!

I had to remind myself that we were doing this hike for ourselves, not for others. I also had to make sure I wasn’t breaking Cy’s spirit; going home was not an option but we just had to get some rest - I knew who to get in touch with and I would let Beverley and Tim know about him the next morning.

Time to call on a fellow expeditioner and snake handler!