{"id":432,"date":"2013-03-18T12:00:49","date_gmt":"2013-03-18T11:00:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.skeptic.de\/blog.multi\/kiwi4\/?p=432"},"modified":"2025-01-02T20:11:21","modified_gmt":"2025-01-02T20:11:21","slug":"day-13-fri-feb-15-north-west-circuit-6","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/leetraynor.com\/blog.multi\/kiwi4\/?p=432","title":{"rendered":"13. North-West Circuit 6"},"content":{"rendered":"
East Ruggedy – Big Hellfire, 15.0 km<\/h5>\n
Friday, February 15: Some drizzle at first, clearing, rain later on<\/h5>\n
GPS Track<\/a><\/h5>\n
\"West<\/a>

West Ruggedy Beach<\/p><\/div>\n

Got just over half a night\u2019s sleep and was, of course, the first up and about, although I tried hard not to wreak revenge for last night\u2019s events. Donna was up just as I had gotten my stuff together and I was ready to go.<\/p>\n

Decided to split the day into four parts of (un-)equal time\/distance divisions: 1) The track now leads via West Ruggedy Beach, so that was the first stage, including along the beach to the end; 2) From the beach end to the pass in the Ruggedy Mountains; 3) From there to Waituna Bay; and 4) finally to Big Hellfire. <\/p>\n

\"Rare<\/a>

Rare sign<\/p><\/div>\n

Some of the track was in relatively good nick, especially the beginning, and a section up to the pass. From there on there were record long sections of mud and I had to take longer, making decisions about how to get across them successfully. Stopped in Waituna Bay to finish the water and collect some saltwater; on the pass there had been a sign saying two hours to Waituna and a further two to Hellfire, and arrived in Hellfire after crossing the final sand dune pretty much after six hours in total.<\/p>\n

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GPS Track: <\/span><\/div>\n
<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Washed the boots, then trousers, underpants and sox (hut sox have to be washed tomorrow!), collected some firewood, and had some lunch. Then decided I needed a bit of sleep and unrolled the sleeping bag for a bit of a snooze. Around 6:00 two older Aussies turned up, doing the track in the reverse direction, Bob & Ken.<\/p>\n

They were quite talkative of their exploits in NSW, in the Snowies and the Blue Mountains. Bob was a surveyor (should say: used to be; both are retired) and Ken was a teacher of Social Studies, with quite a number of other subjects, at some Catholic school. My dinner was rice with peas; forgot to cook the peas first; not such a good idea. Washed the rice a couple of times; that worked out better.<\/p>\n

In the meantime fog and then rain had set in. I had cleaned out the fireplace and Bob gave a try at lighting the fire – which I must say that he as a bushman made a complete hames of. I took everything out again and started it going, but he fiddled with it until it went out. Also, he seemed to have no technique for blowing into the fire.<\/p>\n

Possibly some of the wood was a bit damp, or the proverbial possum was stuck up the chimney; in any case it took some huffing and puffing before the thing was going halfways.<\/p>\n

Went to bed just after 10:00, the others fiddled around with their stuff for a bit (they have absolutely giant packs) and then all went silent, except for the snorers, both of them.
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