Eventually the peacock did wake Laura up and so bright and early we went over to breakfast. There was no Internet access at MMR which was slightly annoying. I think they just pretend they have it because they used some excuse about cloud cover as the reason it was down. I was pleased to report that I didn’t ache at all after the previous day and Laura said the same.
By 9am we were ready to go again. I think if it had been sunny we might have been more keen to stay by the pool but it wasn’t, it was rather dull and overcast. At least it wasn’t still raining though. Today’s walk started with a steep climb back down to the sea through the woods. It was quite slippery because of the rain and there were lots of steps again made with logs. In other words there were lots of places to trip or slip- the logs, the rocks ,the roots, the mud!
However, we made our way very slowly down and all arrived in one piece. The trouble with down bits is that it does make your feet rub in your boots. Laura decided this was giving her a blister under her big toe and I came to the rescue here with a blister plaster. My own feet felt sore but I decided best to leave things alone.
Today it was also very muggy and we got terribly hot climbing down and the day was only just beginning. Marius had told us that it was 5 hours of walking before lunch today. At the bottom we reached a similar spot to the lunch spot the day before. Right by the sea and with great parallel rows of rock in stunning colours. We continued to walk along the sea now, across rocks and then up and down through woodland. We passed though the amphitheatre which is a huge rock hollow and cave.
From here Laura and I took the lead as she decided that it was best to try and stay ahead of the group today and not to lag behind. We climbed high up out of here and Marius spotted dolphins and then whales. They were both a long way out and I didn’t really see the dolphins myself. Then we came across a sandy bit with a stream and waterfalls. Henry told us was otter alley. They are freshwater otters but he said they actually hadn’t been seen for a while.
We had a break for some snacks at a spot with particularly huge boulders. Here we sat and ate our apple and energy bars. This was a welcome break and luckily the rain that had started soon went away whilst we sat here. The flowers and plants along our way today were amazing and varied between typical English, country garden plants like forget me not and geranium to more exotic forest orchids and canna Lillies. The variety you see in just two days walking is quite incredible and it made it all very pretty.
We had some more spotting of whales and then at one point, a small pod of bottle nosed dolphins swam right along the waterline. I was quite high when this happened and had a good view. Laura, who was back with the rest of the group, kept shouting ‘where are they? ‘ and I very helpfully replied several times ‘they’re just behind the big rocks and the mushy water.’ Â I was very excited. This strangely seemed to leave the group slightly confused and looking in all directions.
Next we came back down to the rocks and there was a choice to go swimming in one of the big rock pools. It did look tempting but again I’d not brought my cozzie. No one else wanted to swim either and Laura said she would have but didn’t like the look of the added bonus of climbing up and down the rocks to get there.
This next bit was one of my favourite stretches of the whole walk as we strode purposefully along the parallel rocks. It was really beautiful as the orange and cream/grey colours of the rocks and lichen rubbed shoulders with the blue sea and sky. By now we were all easily able to cope with this terrain although every now and then Mariuss held his stick out to support us as we climbed down an awkward bit. Nice man. I loved the way that we could now do this rock hopping with great confidence not like the first day we arrived, when I was clambering over the rocks on all fours.
Next Henry told me and Laura we now had just two more small ups and downs before the big climb up ahead of lunch. These passed uneventfully and soon there was no more putting it off- we needed to climb up and out. We could see our initial target high up above- a kind of gate between two rocky outcrops standing above the tree line.
By now the sun was out and we set off partly through trees and partly not. They’d told us this climb was steep but not as bad as Stielkop (Steep Hill) the day before. However, unfortunately they also said this one was longer. I asked for some extra water only to be told they had just one small bottle left between us all. I said we should keep that for emergencies. Running out of water was not good though and the whole group looked slightly concerned as it was still a long way until lunch and more water.
The climb up was steep and very tiring. I did most of this by myself as I really had no energy to talk to anyone else. Laura meanwhile had slipped to the back with Henry and Bruce and I could hear them chatting away behind me. Even after we made it to the ‘gate’ there was another really steep, exposed bit before we entered the woods again. I was incredibly slow getting up here.
Eventually though we all made it and the path now flattened out through the deep woods. Once again this was tick territory and today I did find two on my trousers but none on me thank goodness. The guides told us it was now about 20 minutes to lunch but it turned out to be much more than this as we walked through pine forests. I really, really needed water now as did others and Marius rationed out the remaining bottle of water until it ran out. Then Bruce shared his half bottle with the more needy until that went too. I was on the verge of having a sense of humour failure when finally we came across a picnic table. But it wasn’t laid and there was no-one else about. It turned out this was just a joke picnic table. Yeah right, very funny.
On we went for probably another 20mins. Now everyone was pretty fed up and people started to worry about Michaela and her lack of water intake. We’d used up all our supplies and so it was just in time that we came across a 4×4 vehicles blocking our path. This was it, the sign to turn off and we found our picnic lunch all laid out on three tables. To start with I could not speak and definitely could not eat. I just downed some really cold fruit juice too quickly and then some slightly warmer water which Jane gave me. Apparently you are not meant to drink the really cold stuff too quickly . Oops, too late….
After a few minutes I started to feel slightly better and drank a lovely cup of tea made by Laura. Laura, who ,by the way, now uses birch bark in her tea instead of sugar. She also thinks that not using deodorant is a good idea but that using garden snails to treat skin conditions is perfectly acceptable. Cracker– it’s time you came to see her to sort her out! I also ate some quiche, a salad kebab stick and some bread. This was followed by a delicious slice of milk pudding. Kind of like a custard tart and very lovely.
Now we all started to liven up a bit and after a decent break we were ready to set off again. It was now just a two hour walk to our next desination. The Fernery and it’s swimming pool to be precise. The walking now became much easier and we all returned to being human again. I walked with Michaela, who works in the tourist industry, and Jane the Doctor, who is both an emergency Dr and Sports Physician. She was also the Doctor for the entire length of the torch relay for the Vancouver Winter Olympics. We had a great chat all the way to The Fernery and the time flew by as we compared notes on life changing moments. Meanwhile, I had rather abandoned Laura who was struggling with overall tiredness but who arrived at the Fernery not long after us.
It had been an incredibly tough days walking especially the bit just before lunch. We’d walked 6.2 miles in total in muggy, muggy heat. But we’d made it and we were all absolutely delighted.
More than that we were really impressed by our latest residence. The lodge here has amazing verandas overlooking a waterfall and deep gorge down to the sea. Our individual chalets were just outstanding. Ours was huge and with the most amazing bathrooms with windows that folded open meaning that you could have your shower or bath entirely open to the elements and baboons (not that we saw any).
After some excitement we arranged to meet Jane down at the jacuzzi instead of the swimming pool as this looked a lot more inviting. The jacuzzi itself was outside and overlooking the waterfall. There was young couple in there but we soon scared them off as Laura and I got in. We found out the next day that it was their wedding day..oops poor things. Jane, Laura and I sat in the jacuzzi putting the world to rights with a glass of wine and having a great laugh too. I think we could have happily stayed here all night but we had to go and get ready for dinner…
So we’d done it then- completed the Dolphin Trail. Not the longest walks I’ve done this year but almost certainly the toughest. The second days stretch was x miles. I don’t think I could have enjoyed this earlier in the year. I probably would have made it still but I would have ached like crazy whereas really now I don’t. Laura also did spectacularly well to compete the course as did the rest of our group. Earlier on in the day Marius had told us that quite a lot of people do give up after the first day and that made us feel pretty proud that we’d kept going and now we were at the finish. We enjoyed our last dinner together and had a nice night. It’s great that we’d had such a friendly group to walk with and how quickly we’d bonded.
The next day we had breakfast, visited the Fernery packing room and then travelled back to Storms River Mouth by 4×4. We took the old road through the pine forests and woods and finally arrived back in civilisation. We had our group photo taken in front of the view of where we’d just walked. We were impressed with ourselves as we looked back and then went our separate ways, sad that it was all over.
Walky Talky 