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Published: March 27th 2008
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Richie and I decided that we weren't gonna go because it looked as if we would get a lot of rain on Monday. But on Sunday morning the weather forecast was changed and so we set off first by car then by train. It was about an hour train ride from central station to Otford. Otford was a little station it the middle of no where. There was no one on the platform, no ticket booth, no nothing. We grabbed our bags (Which were quite heavy because we had to carry food and water for two days. We each had 5 liters in our packs. 5 liters is way heavier than I thought!) and hiked up the hill to the road. Here there was a couple of shops down the road to the right but still pretty isolated. We hiked down the road to the left until we reached the trail head. Here there were a lot of people flying remote control planes and a couple of people para sailing. The trail was well trafficked with lots of day hikers and so we passed a lot of people along the way. The hiking was mainly in the cover of high trees
and brush. It was hard at first because we both hadn't hiked in a long time. We soon dropped down a bit into jungle like vegetation. It felt like we were hiking through the jungle. Large vines hung from the trees and draped across the trail like something from a Tarzan movie. It was really cool. The air was hot and humid and we were soon covered in sweat that wouldn't evaporate or cool us down. After a while through the jungle we came out into a meadow-like landscape right on bluffs leading to the ocean. The meadow was composed of grasses and a long cut-grass plant that scratched our legs a bit. Down the middle ran a well-worn muddy track which we would venture off of every once in awhile to avoid the really muddy spots. This dropped down into a beach area that was inhabited by houses. I was surprised to see these houses in the middle of nowhere but here they were. We stumbled along the path and decided to rest in the shade of one of the houses. People were running back and forth from the houses to the beach. Some carrying surfboards, some fishing poles,
and some cold glasses of beer. These people were cheating! Here we were trying to rough it and they were drinking beer and surfing! This shouldn't be allowed while backpacking. So we sat and ate our trail mix. Richard flicked a couple of leeches off and we continued on. We passed a couple more of these little villages hiking up and over the hills and beaches until we reached the designated camping point. Here we decided to call it a day and set up camp. There were about ten other little sites set up around the area as well. But these people were backpackers not beer swigging village dwellers. They were my people. After we set up camp we went for a body surf at the beach ten meters away from the camp. There were fun little waves coming in for body surfing and we stayed out until dusk. We came in dried off and cooked up some dinner. This lightened my load a lot because I was carrying all the food. After dinner we played chess (I lost) and went to bed in our two man tent. That night it rained pretty hard and in the morning there was
a little drizzle. We woke up early, ate some instant oatmeal, and broke camp. We had along day ahead of of us. 20km to be exact. We hiked up a big hill in a slight drizzle which was quite nice as we were getting very hot with the hiking. To make it to the top of the big hill we had to go up endless switch backs with large steps in between. The steps were carved out of the rock and it felt as if we were on a never-ending stair master. Step after step, after step. We were tiring very quickly and were tremendously happy to reach the top. At the top there was a narrow trail through thick bush for a long ways. It was really awesome to look out over where we were camping and all the surrounding are where there was only bush and jungle. It was enlightening to feel alone and separated from civilization again. We continued onward and eventually came to a metal grating that made up the path. This was much easier to walk on through the bush. We followed this metal trail until it came out onto the rocky cliff face. These
cliffs were mind-blowing. They just dropped off into the ocean; the edge of Australia. It wasn't gradual in anyway. In fact it actually looked surreal. We walked along these cliffs for quite some time reveling in there beauty. Sometimes we would come across a creek which would flow down and straight off the cliff forming some pretty cool waterfalls. But they could only be viewed at a distance from strange angles. It would have been a breathtaking view to look directly onto the cliffs from the ocean. You would see huge cliffs rising out of the ocean lined with tons of little waterfalls cascading over the edges. We kept going onward until we came down a hill and reached a beach with quite a few people on it. We walked down the beach and there was a beach club and a parking lot crammed full of cars. Yet again this was rather a surprise after being in the middle of nowhere and popping out of the bush to this. So we didn't hang around and continued onward up yet another hill with lots of steps. I felt like I was on the Inca trail except in Australia, at sea level,
in warm air, and the fact that I've never been on the Inca trail and so have no idea what its like. At the top of this hill we hit more bush and metal trail that carried us on for quite awhile until came down a hill into a parking lot and reached Wattamalla. Wattamalla was an extremely populated and disgusting beach. Here we were so tired though that we decided to stop for lunch and soak our feet. We spent about an hour eating and soaking. Richard was getting blisters on his toes and so the soaking benefited him a lot. After an hour we had had enough and left climbing yet another hill. We hiked for another long while until we reached Marley beach. A beautiful sunny place with very few people on it. We stopped here for a swim and cool down. We hung out and got sun burned for about an hour or so. But we had a ferry to catch at 6:00 so we set off once more through the bush on a narrow trail which we would lose occasionally when it would come onto a large rock face. We saw a kangaroo at one
point along this trail which was pretty sweet. It hopped off the trail and into the bush right when we came around the corner. After the roo we had a rather bland path to walk through the bush. Finally we reached a dirt road and followed it out to a paved road. We were exhausted by this time and were ready to go home. We got direction from an old lady watering her flowers and learned that we still had a kilometer to walk to get to the ferry. We eventually stumbled up to the dock with cramps in our legs and blisters on our feet. We caught the last ferry, then a bus, a train, and lastly a taxi. We were so tired by the end and so we unpacked and went to sleep. I got to wake up early and go to school the next morning. All in all it was a wonderful trip and I had a splendid time. I enjoyed it a lot.
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rinckmo
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yo chet
Hey Chet, Great blog entries. Looks pretty nice over there except there is no snow :-). Richard always gets blisters! This summer he had blisters after a few hours on the badminton court. If you get a chance I would like to hear about the soccer team. I think it is great that you get that opportunity. Hope the waves are good.