Day 8: Charlie Creek to Davies Plain Hut to somewhere in the mountains

After an early arrival at Charlie creek, Cy and I felt both rested and ready for another day.

Reaching the peak at 1750 meters was so rewarding thinking from now on it must get easier. By 2:30 PM, we arrived at Davies Plain Hut where we were planning to camp only to find it already occupied by three young men who had set up camp.

We were not keen to crash their remoteness party and we felt it was too early to set up camp. The men were kind and shared three bottles of water with us!

Determined to make headway towards Tom Groggin, we chose to press on. This decision led us into a grueling 950-meter descent on the most treacherous of track conditions. The path was heavily scarred by floods, leaving it broken and so steep.

Cy pushed forward with admirable resilience! He too wanted to get to Tom Groggin where Beverley and Linda would be arriving with food and comforts. It gave us such a burst of energy.

The steep declines took ages to master and daylight began to fade, our progress left us without a proper campsite or sufficient water.

We improvised, setting up a makeshift camp as exhaustion settled in. We preserved the water we had left for the next day. Some weeding and cutting was required to create a ground for our tent but we managed and I had a surprisingly good sleep.

Despite the challenges, we felt a sense of accomplishment, knowing we had advanced closer to Tom Groggin and that the next day will be easier given our head start we made today.

The wilderness held surprises at every turn, and this day was no different—a red-bellied snake basked in the sun on a narrow section of the track. Cy and I were debating whether we should pass the snake from its back or front where it could see us. We decided to stay in snake plain site and passed it so it could see us. We literally passed it with an odd 20cm distance, we were gently trodding past trying not to disturb it and it granted us passage without a care in the world.

It’s those moments where I could see Cy come to life, appreciating those snippets amongst the harder challenges.