13 December 2019

The Original Plan: Yankee River to Long Harry
The New Plan: Somewhere near Yankee River to Yankee River and rest day
Steps: 14,729
Floors Climbed: 11
Distance: 10.9km
Tantrums: 0

I woke up about 7am and worked on my battle plan. I checked my location on my dry phone with dry fingers, I was very close to the hut!

Packed and ready to roll, I squelched down the steep hill and knew I would not have been able to do this last night.

A rustle in the bush and lo and behold, a young deer was staring at me! I don’t know how hunters can shoot such beautiful creatures, there again I have no issue eating them and they are technically a pest in this part of the world. After I said hello the deer flung its head up superciliously and vanished into the bushes...I'm not sure what I expected to happen, clearly watched too many Disney movies in my childhood.

Half an hour later I arrived at Yankee River hut, the fire was going and my two new friends (Tristan and Jen from Christchurch) were there planning the next leg of their journey. They had been concerned when I didn’t materialise last night and seemed surprised to see me wander up to the door at 8:00am.

The hut was the most well-stocked so far, people had left dish soap, malt vinegar, cooking oil and plates/glasses. There was a reasonable supply of wood for the burner too.

At this point I had given up, feeling I was not built to handle a hike of this magnitude and duration. I wasn’t even upset and felt fine with this decision, but at some point during the day it occurred to me that the hike back would feel like a walk of failure, and what if I had more energy and could have gone on? Would I always wonder “what if”?

I looked at the map and realised three things:

Thing 1: It wasn’t the difficulty or exertion that was killing my spirit. It was not knowing where I was and how far away the hut was. The days ahead, even the longer ones, are broken into clear sections. Up a hill, down the other side, along a beach, up a hill, halfway down and the hut! I’ll always know kind of where I was, even if it was taking longer (and did it ever).

Thing 2: I can use my rest day to get organised so I can leave earlier, a 13-hour day would then end in daylight. So I will leave 8am at the latest and if I get there early then yay.

Thing 3: I had no cellphone reception anyway! Tristan got me some water taxi numbers but I couldn't call or text despite my phone pretending to have some reception. Bless it.

So it’s on, tomorrow the quitter has quit quitting and will sally forth to Long Harry Hut. I will have to do a “stupid day” and skip a hut later on, or I’ll arrive in Oban a day late and miss my hotel room and leave at 6am so I don’t miss my flight at 12:30. Water taxis also run from Freshwater and North Arm so that’s another option.

As I was musing this, a human being arrived (always exciting on these hikes). Yuval from Israel, also hiking alone, had just come from Christmas Village in 7 hours (I can’t even...) and following him a French couple José and Tiphaine. We had a fun afternoon and BOY can the French cook, even in the middle of nowhere José whips up flatbread on the firebox then catches and cooks a small fish for Yuval. They brought their own herbs and spices and can make amazingness out of anything! Yuval made up a round of Israeli coffee, which was pretty darn good. My heat-in-the-sachet chicken casserole and shake-in-the-jar instant pudding looked less exciting 😂

Bathing in the river was a cold but purifying experience, I felt clean again! We’d made the hut toasty warm which was nice after emerging from the chilly Yankee River. It almost got a little warmer however, we noticed not only had an ember fallen into the box of logs, but had burnt a hole into a log and was burning away quietly! The log literally had a hellish cave of fire inside it! A little water sorted that out and we moved the wood box further away.

We had a blunt axe in the woodhouse so I helped chop some wood so future hikers had some things to burn, wood is easy to find on the coast with all the driftwood though it can be a bitch to chop especially with a blunt axe.

Being in the wilderness is so freeing, just wandering around across the river it felt like nobody had been there before. Originally I was worried I’d get bored with nothing to do, no Facebook or games or music (OK I had music but decided not to play any during the hike); this rest day was far from boring and I really enjoyed puddling about and repacking everything. A bit of a reboot in line with lessons I’d learned on what things needed to be easier to access etc.

Let me be very clear on this: PLAN A REST DAY!! It is worth it to reboot your physical and mental state. Don't go all "I can handle the jandal", you don't have to decide where you'll need it but for the love of all things sacred, plan one! Got it? Yes? Good.

Bedtime for my early start before we split up tomorrow. Yuval going all the way to East Ruggedy and the Frenchies having a rest day.