Day 155 Guy Fawkes National Park

 NSW Day 13 (155) Tuesday 16th October, 2021 23.3km

3066.9 / 2032km

Up at the crack of dawn. I want to get to the National Park at least today. The day is mostly road pounding so I can zone out again.

I am trying to get as much done in the cool hours of the morning. Then I can pick and choose after lunch how far I want to go in the warmer parts of the day. I have to be ready for bed just after sundown as the nights are getting shorter and I need to give myself a chance at a good sleep.

The morning walk through rural properties provides a good backdrop . I get to a telephone exchange and get just enough signal to receive a text message. So still can't upload photos. Looks like i won't get signal now till I climb back out of the Guy Fawkes National Park.

I pass an old war memorial. The book says the building was a hall but now it looks like it's been converted to a house and the people have a little hobby farm.

A few more hours walk bring me 1 kilometre from the Newton Boyd rodeo grounds, the official campsite. I turn off down the track to the National Park. I want to do a couple of river crossings today. The level of water at those will determine how wet I'm going to get further up. As long as it doesn't rain of course.

As I'm wandering down the track I get an urge for chocolate cake and milk. Not just a piece but a whole cake or maybe I can eat half the batter before baking. Some of Belinda's cakes have looked a little sad when she's taken her eye off the mix before she gets it into the oven. Surprising how much one finger can lift out. The other thing is a deep drink of Pepsi Max. You know the guzzle that burns your throat and makes your eyes water. Followed by the guttural belch that clears the pipes. Or a cold cherry ripe. Not fussy really.

I finally get to the first river crossing. At this point it's the Boyd River. I take off my boots and it's about mid shin deep. I walk the couple of hundred metres in my Adidas slip ons. That depth is a little deeper just below the knee. I pass some shacks above the river crossing, lots of mess and old cars. They have a beautiful spot but mar it with human ugliness. About another kilometre I'm through the gates into the National Park. My intention is to get to some grassy flats beside the river and camp. As I'm walking down the hill there are those piles of horse poo that show a lot of horses are in here. When I get to the flats I disturb about 10 or 12 Brumby's. They take off as they see me but in the middle of the night there was a lot of stamping of hooves and snorting keeping me awake. I got my head torch out and shone it at them and they galloped off and left me alone for the rest of the night.

I thought I would hear the water bubbling away but the wind blew and the swish it makes as it goes through the sheoaks was all I got to hear. It rained a little.