Training Begins for Gokyo - Wilsons Prom

Wilsons Prom 4 day hike slightly modified.

So the plan was to complete the walk over four days!

Day 1 - Telegraph Saddle to Sealers Cove

Wind, wind and more wind! At least, the sky was mostly blue! The damage to the track from the March 2011 storms and landslides was evident in several locations both up to Windy Saddle and down through the rainforest to Sealers. Great gouges out of the earth hundreds of metres long crossed the path with a great deal of work having to be completed to rebuild the track.
We timed our arrival at Sealers for low tide to ensure only our feet got wet getting to the campsite. Lack of use was evident as the bracken had taken over and campsites were limited. Especially with the water seeming to fill most of the sites available. We spent the afternoon lazing around, eating and taking pictures.

Weather looks fantastic!





Lunch out of the wind!





Settled for the afternoon!



Sunset!





twilight provides an opportunity to experiment.



 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Day 2 - Sealers Cove to Little Waterloo Bay

Having not done any training prior to our departure all our muscles where feeling the pain as we commenced the walk up the hill towards Refuge Cove. The wind had been having fun all night and it seemed to increase as the day went on. We rested at Refuge Cove before marching up to the summit of Kersops Peak. Certainly a fun climb with packs but we seemed to manage alright. After dropping our packs and heading to the summit we decided to get down out of the wind to have lunch. An hour or so later we were on the beach in shelter enjoying the view across to Waterloo bay. While you seem so close to the campsite the intervening walk up and down hill makes for a rather long journey. To make matters worse the weather decided it was time to be windy and rain! By the time we walked into Little Waterloo bay the rain was making its mark! What ensued was the next 15 hours being spent in our tent, eating and sleeping and listening to the rain and wind!

 

 

Day 3 - Little Waterloo to Oberon Bay (not!)

Overnight nothing had changed... Wind and more rain. We stayed dry even though we had a river running under our tent. Ironically, when we were at Little Waterloo last - 20 years previous, it rained just as hard! Breakfast and packing up in the tent went well and with wet weather adorned we walked off into the rain and wind. Fortunately, the wind got worse! I say fortunately because the decision was made to cut our journey short and return to Telegraph saddle rather than risk another night out in this weather. The initial report was for the worst weather to be coming through on the last day of our walk but this was pretty bad! The walk up to Telegraph saddle is long and boring, the only good thing was that the rain eased and we were a little more sheltered from the wind. We arrived back at the car shoved our gear in the boot then headed for a shower prior to heading home.

While the trip was cut short the 36kms covered signalled that we had a lot of training to get back to reasonable fitness! This was our first sojourn back into the bush with packs so we didn't expect to get it easy! Unfortunately the weather made things much worse!