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Day Three: 31 December 2008 Cracroft Crossing to Pass Creek Walking Time - 6 Hours |
| Susan's Diary |
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Day
3: We planned an 8am
start today, with a 6:30am wake up but again slept past the alarms and
were ready to leave at 9:50am after finally getting up at 7:30am. There
were patches of rain again in the morning, so we prepared breakfast under
the fly, using the straps we’d attached to hold it up, having packed the
inner tent. Just before leaving Cracroft River we went back to the
crossing and saw that the water level had risen massively during the
night, by over a metre! We were very glad that we had crossed last night
and were surprised given that not much rain had fallen on our tent. We
wondered what the other party would do now. After Cracroft River there is easy walking to the top of the Razorback. From there we slowed down as the track was quite wet, but not as muddy as the Loddon Plains. We reached Strike Creek and were amazed at the speed of the water flow. After scouting for the best crossing place, Luca braved the water and found it came just above his knees, although the flow was much faster than at yesterday’s crossing. We crossed the water together. After having a snack and putting our backpacks on, we set off. It was 12:15pm, but with only 3kms to go, we thought it would be better to push on to camp – we would be camping at Pass Creek as we left too late to get up to Stuarts Saddle – so we did not have lunch. The track remained muddy and progress was relatively slow. At 1:20pm we finally reached the Lucifer’s Ridge Junction up to the Western Arthurs and at 1:50pm we reached Pass Creek. Pass Creek had made itself heard some distance back, and we could see why. The flow of the water was massive and at the crossing point we appeared to have to cross through rapids. There were no log jams. We decided to set up a safety rope for Luca to cross. There was a rope tied on both banks also. After tightening this rope, Luca crossed with me keeping our rope around his waist tight. After becoming comfortable with the crossing, Luca crossed with both packs. We threw the walking poles across instead. The water came up to his thighs, except when he had to bend down to get his big backpack under the rope. It came up even higher then. After the packs were across, Luca tied his end of our rope to a tree and I tied my end around my waist and crossed successfully. We thought another crossing was close so wandered up the track to find it in our clogs – very uncomfortable walking. After 10 minutes we gave them up and returned to our boots. At 3:15pm we set off again. Soon after we jumped over a small creek - no clogs required – and arrived at a great campsite with heaps of spots at 3:30pm. We were the only ones there. After unpacking our gear and collecting water, we got into the tent to prepare dinner – we gave up on lunch – at 4:30pm. Occasional rain forced us to cook in the tent. We had (artificial) Thai chicken soup with chilli tofu cakes and parmesan cheese with mountain bread on the side. It was very tasty. We had Cadbury chocolate balls for dessert. The rain continued throughout the evening whilst we read in our tent for a quiet New Year’s Eve.
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