Walk on the Wild Side or a mutli day tramp in the Alps
February 4th 2007 07:53
Hi there everyone
I hope this post finds you all well? I thought I would share A Walk on the Wild Side with you all.
‘Out of the Comfort Zone’
A tale of a walk in the mountains or in layman’s terms ‘A bloody hard slog!’
Dec 31st
Drove to Arthur’s Pass National Park, stopping to have dinner at the BealeyHotel, which in the old days was a staging post for the horse drawn mail wagons. Dinner consisted of ham steak, chips and salad which cost about $18.50. It was okay but the ham was straight out of the packet, not off the bone. Steve had fish and chips which looked a better option.
Arrived at Arthur’s Pass village, nice backpackers split into separate houses . There were three couples there, one from Europe and two from Australia. After settling in for the night, we all sat down in front of an open fire, opened the wine that I had bought, chatting until we saw the New Year in, before going to bed.
6.30am Jan 1st
Head slightly thumping as I opened my eyes, thinking that drinking almost a whole bottle of wine to myself wasn’t the best idea really, but got out of the sleeping bag and thought it would be best to wake Stevo who was still sound asleep in the top bunk. I sort of shook him by the arm, when he let out a loud yell, which scared the s**t out of me.
‘Oh sorry’ he replied with a yawn.
‘Hhmmm’ I thought as I went to have a shower, the last shower for 3 days, ‘Arrrgghhh!!’ I must have a shower in the mornings or can get slightly cranky.
After breakfast, which I never wrote down in my journal at the time and can’t remember 2 months on what we had, we went to the rangers office, to buy hut passes and fill out our intentions, in case of any mishaps.
As just only a week earlier, two woman climbers had been trapped on an exposed ledge for eight days before being rescued and were very lucky to get out okay apart from some frost nip.
So feeling confident we set off for the long walk to Klondyke corner, but being the smug clever bugger that we all know and love. I had on the very journal I took with me, wrote in black marker pen, the words Klondyke corner please on the journal’s inside cover.
This is because when ever you see a hitchhiker, you always assume they are going where you might be going and not just a short distance up the road and it never hurt to be polite either. Mind you we still ended up walking for about 40 mins before a nice couple stopped and picked us up. It was a very tight squeeze, into the small 3 door hatchback, but it certainly beat walking the rest of the way.
After thanking them for the lift, we set off along the river. It was beginning to be a very warm day, with the wind blowing with the heat of an oven door being opened. A long gravel bash lay ahead of us and it was 10.00am when we got under way. We knew this terrain though as we had travelled along this route before.
Even though it was the height of summer, the river water was still cold, swift and deep in places and river crossings aren't called 'The New Zealand Death' for nothing, so if you ever have to cross a river, be damm careful!
Had lunch at 1.00pm, knee started to feel a little twinky and the muscles across my shoulders blades were really tight and painful.
But you just have to grit your teeth and get on with it! But I did take one of my painkillers and that started to have an effect an hour later.
Arrived at the Carrington Hut 5 hours later absolutely knackered, bag way too heavy as always, but it was really nice to have my gourmet soup that night, with some nice bread. The hut can sleep about 35 people and there were about 10 people there when we arrived.
The hut was the idea of a Gerald Carrington, who in 1925 while sitting around a campfire close to where the current hut now stands, proposed to his four friends that they form a club and promote the area for recreation.
The club was formed in 1925 and the first hut began construction on the river terrace, but before it was completed, Carrington was drowned in the Waimakariri gorge. The hut was completed by club members and named The G N Carrington Hut in 1926.
In 1940 the river changed course and a new hut was built on a terrace just above where the present one is now placed. The old one served visitors to the valley until March 1975.
9.00pm Starting to lose the light now, shoulders still hurting, but knee seems to be okay, so that is a relief. Tomorrow should be an easy day although Saturday will be very tough with a high margin of error quite possible.
Very warm in hut at present, so didn’t use the sleeping bag, but had only just dropped off to sleep, when some muppet left the outside door open as he cleaned his teeth and let a psychotic possum inside.
Big, noisy with large claws, it raced around making a huge racket trying to get out again, before finally disappearing into the night.
It turned a little cooler in the night, so had me wishing for my sleeping bag as it was still packed away in my bag.
5.30am Double Arrgghhh!!! Feeling tired, but only got a 4 hour tramp today, so should be okay although it will be a lot colder at the Waimak falls hut as it is a lot higher up.
Had breakfast which consisted of cereal with hot milk and choccy powder, coffee and a fruit bar. Left Carrington hut at 7.30am
and the beginning of the tramp was good until we got wet feet from an early river crossing. After following the trail through the bush for some way
we came to quite a few places were avalanche debris slopes had washed away the trail. We then came to a part of the trail where we didn’t know which side of the river we had to be on as there were cairns on each side.
Tramping can consist of some detective work as you are always looking for any sign no matter how small that someone has been there before you. Part of a footprint, broken twigs anything that gives you a clue of where to go.
To be continued.................... ...............
I hope this post finds you all well? I thought I would share A Walk on the Wild Side with you all.
‘Out of the Comfort Zone’
A tale of a walk in the mountains or in layman’s terms ‘A bloody hard slog!’
Dec 31st
Drove to Arthur’s Pass National Park, stopping to have dinner at the BealeyHotel, which in the old days was a staging post for the horse drawn mail wagons. Dinner consisted of ham steak, chips and salad which cost about $18.50. It was okay but the ham was straight out of the packet, not off the bone. Steve had fish and chips which looked a better option.
Arrived at Arthur’s Pass village, nice backpackers split into separate houses . There were three couples there, one from Europe and two from Australia. After settling in for the night, we all sat down in front of an open fire, opened the wine that I had bought, chatting until we saw the New Year in, before going to bed.
6.30am Jan 1st
Head slightly thumping as I opened my eyes, thinking that drinking almost a whole bottle of wine to myself wasn’t the best idea really, but got out of the sleeping bag and thought it would be best to wake Stevo who was still sound asleep in the top bunk. I sort of shook him by the arm, when he let out a loud yell, which scared the s**t out of me.
‘Oh sorry’ he replied with a yawn.
‘Hhmmm’ I thought as I went to have a shower, the last shower for 3 days, ‘Arrrgghhh!!’ I must have a shower in the mornings or can get slightly cranky.
After breakfast, which I never wrote down in my journal at the time and can’t remember 2 months on what we had, we went to the rangers office, to buy hut passes and fill out our intentions, in case of any mishaps.
As just only a week earlier, two woman climbers had been trapped on an exposed ledge for eight days before being rescued and were very lucky to get out okay apart from some frost nip.
So feeling confident we set off for the long walk to Klondyke corner, but being the smug clever bugger that we all know and love. I had on the very journal I took with me, wrote in black marker pen, the words Klondyke corner please on the journal’s inside cover.
This is because when ever you see a hitchhiker, you always assume they are going where you might be going and not just a short distance up the road and it never hurt to be polite either. Mind you we still ended up walking for about 40 mins before a nice couple stopped and picked us up. It was a very tight squeeze, into the small 3 door hatchback, but it certainly beat walking the rest of the way.
After thanking them for the lift, we set off along the river. It was beginning to be a very warm day, with the wind blowing with the heat of an oven door being opened. A long gravel bash lay ahead of us and it was 10.00am when we got under way. We knew this terrain though as we had travelled along this route before.
Even though it was the height of summer, the river water was still cold, swift and deep in places and river crossings aren't called 'The New Zealand Death' for nothing, so if you ever have to cross a river, be damm careful!
Brrrr water's cold
Had lunch at 1.00pm, knee started to feel a little twinky and the muscles across my shoulders blades were really tight and painful.
But you just have to grit your teeth and get on with it! But I did take one of my painkillers and that started to have an effect an hour later.
Not too far to the hut
Arrived at the Carrington Hut 5 hours later absolutely knackered, bag way too heavy as always, but it was really nice to have my gourmet soup that night, with some nice bread. The hut can sleep about 35 people and there were about 10 people there when we arrived.
The hut was the idea of a Gerald Carrington, who in 1925 while sitting around a campfire close to where the current hut now stands, proposed to his four friends that they form a club and promote the area for recreation.
The club was formed in 1925 and the first hut began construction on the river terrace, but before it was completed, Carrington was drowned in the Waimakariri gorge. The hut was completed by club members and named The G N Carrington Hut in 1926.
In 1940 the river changed course and a new hut was built on a terrace just above where the present one is now placed. The old one served visitors to the valley until March 1975.
9.00pm Starting to lose the light now, shoulders still hurting, but knee seems to be okay, so that is a relief. Tomorrow should be an easy day although Saturday will be very tough with a high margin of error quite possible.
Very warm in hut at present, so didn’t use the sleeping bag, but had only just dropped off to sleep, when some muppet left the outside door open as he cleaned his teeth and let a psychotic possum inside.
Big, noisy with large claws, it raced around making a huge racket trying to get out again, before finally disappearing into the night.
It turned a little cooler in the night, so had me wishing for my sleeping bag as it was still packed away in my bag.
5.30am Double Arrgghhh!!! Feeling tired, but only got a 4 hour tramp today, so should be okay although it will be a lot colder at the Waimak falls hut as it is a lot higher up.
Had breakfast which consisted of cereal with hot milk and choccy powder, coffee and a fruit bar. Left Carrington hut at 7.30am
'Let's go go go'
and the beginning of the tramp was good until we got wet feet from an early river crossing. After following the trail through the bush for some way
Bushman
we came to quite a few places were avalanche debris slopes had washed away the trail. We then came to a part of the trail where we didn’t know which side of the river we had to be on as there were cairns on each side.
Tramping can consist of some detective work as you are always looking for any sign no matter how small that someone has been there before you. Part of a footprint, broken twigs anything that gives you a clue of where to go.
To be continued.................... ...............
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