Day 7: McCarthy track to start of Davies plains track to Charlie creek

After a strenuous previous day of ascending and descending, and having avoided the steep climb down to the Poplar camping site, I was hoping that the worst of climbing was behind us.

But the McCarthy Track was no different as we hiked an unforgiving 890-meter incline that tested both our endurance and patience.

In those moments my dialogue with Cy was about motivating him, saying things like “we are already at 1500m” or “we have done the heavy lifting” and Cy actually bounced back pretty quickly and getting on with the hike. Saying that, the mountains are relentless and after our experiences, we now just started expecting hard yaka and let us be positively surprised when we had sections of flat tracks.

Once we reached the height of McCarthy’s track, the track became mostly flat and the landscape shifted yet again. This track had an eerie remoteness! The ground was covered in countless paw prints and I could smell dog urine. I knew we were in dingo territory, and all sort of thoughts went through my head about how to counter a potential dingo attack, however unlikely. We took out our knife just to be sure.

We conquered the 1550-meter mark! At last, we reached the crossroad of Misery, McCarthy, and Davies Plain. And after days of no service, a faint 4G signal allowed us to share a quick check-in text with Tim. An understated victory, but vital nonetheless.

Running low on water, we decided to push forward to Charlie Creek, where we managed to discover a small trickle of water. The water was barely running and so shallow that I decided to step into the swamp and I went in knee deep, and had quite a bit of a challenge getting myself and my clogs out of this mud pit.

But we had water and the filter did a great job turning the brown soup into clear water. This time we threw in some purifying tablets just to be on the safe side.

We seized the opportunity to set up camp early. The downtime was refreshing, letting me dive into journaling and enjoy a deep conversation with Cy, reflecting on the day’s achievements.

I made a fire which brought some warmth as it was getting cold quite quickly. And as we explored the area, we stumbled upon a larger creek nearby with pristine water!!

The night was freezing cold and I put on every clothing item I had, including our rain gear. My muscles twitched from fatigue and the cold piercing through the tent. And to my surprise, as we got up at 6am for another day, our tent and landscape was covered in ice!

There’s a unique beauty in these experiences. The isolation, the challenge, the cold—they strip away life’s distractions and leave behind only the raw essence of our existence and contrary to what people might think, I have never felt so alive and in touch with myself. In my stomach, I felt a sense of utter connection.