Avalanche Peak

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After a lovely full and undisturbed nights sleep I am refreshed (apart from my legs, which ache from my run), tuck into some breakfast and get ready to head off. Just as I am leaving, Danny asks if he could accompany me, which of course I welcome. Far more enjoyable to walk with someone. So by 9am we have signed in at the DOC, checked the weather forecast and track conditions and head off. It’s a steep climb from the outset, and even without the sunshine and a light breeze present we are both sweating before long, clambering over the rocks and over the hillside. Danny sets a perfect pace thanks to his previous army career and we are soon at the tree line. From the tree line, there are several points where you think you have reached the top…but this isn’t so, just as you arrive you see the next marker on the top of another hill! We stop a few times to admire the view, and above the tree line, the walk turns to a ridge walk for a while. After the grassy ridge walk we get into serious boulder climbing territory, when we gain the final amount of height required, and then walk along another, but this time, rocky ridge line to the end – avalanche peak. We sit for a while and admire the diminishing view, which is being engulfed by the clouds. After about 30minutes tranquillity at the top, but with less and less view, we get too cold and decide to head down. The beauty of this track is you don’t have to head down the same way you came up, there is another track, known as ‘Scott’s Track’, so we head down that way. We then start to encounter people at regular intervals making their way up….with a small space at the peak, it’s going to be busy up there!

It’s a leisurely walk down, as we chat to most people we encounter, and we are back in the village sipping a cider in the pub by 2pm. Danny head off to catch his bus at 3pm, but not before giving me the rest of his chicken, an onion, pepper, fajita kit and slice of chocolate log, which his insists he is not going to take back on the bus with him. I am now very excited for dinner, not only a change from pasta, but actual proper nice, fresh chicken!

I spend the afternoon researching flights and destinations for Heidi’s hen do and making the most of the internet, before cooking my amazing fajitas for dinner. It’s quiet night in the hostel tonight, not many of us here, but those of us that are chat away, tonight, representing, we have the German guy, a German girl, a Swiss couple and a man from the Czech Republic.

And another good night’s sleep in achieved in the dorm room, as only one other girl is occupying it with me.

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