Today was very productive. Not only was today our longest day on the GSWW, but we saw quite a lot of animals as well.
With a 32 km planned, skipping one campsite to get us to Portland a day earlier, we left camp earlier than “usual”, before 8 am.
Not five minutes from Moleside Camp, we saw a koala in a tree. About ten minutes later, we saw two more koala, sitting in a dead tree. We were off to a great start!
From Moleside Camp, the trail generally followed on the ridge above the left bank of the Glenelg River, with occasional views of the river. On the other side of the river, there often did not seem to be much of a shore, with the river going right up to the bush.
Ants along the trail became more plentiful; when we stopped for our first break at a nice overlook, we unknowingly sat down on top of a short ant mound. The ants did not like this, and started biting my legs.
Shortly after our break, with the trail following a well-established ATV track, we missed a turn marker, continuing to follow the track about a third of a kilometer to a paved road. When we backtracked, we wondered how we could ever have missed the marker at all. Clearly, the conversation we were having was so engaging we totally missed the marker. Fortunately, that only cost us ten minutes.
For most of the day, the trail bounced up and down along the ridge, only occasionally dropping down to river level. The first time was at Saunders Landing, which had a boat ramp and road access.
A bit later, we saw a copperhead, slithering off the trail. Not even a minute later, we saw a lizard, which at first looked like a really short tiger snake, until we saw it had legs.
We thought we had seen an echidna the other day, but today, we easily saw half a dozen, digging holes in the trail in a search for ants. (Also, digging into the dirt to establish a defensive posture to protect their non-quilled head.)
The echidna we saw throughout the day, and their friends we didn’t see, were likely responsible for no small number of holes in the trail, making the otherwise nice path a little more dangerous to hike. Nothing serious, of course, but a path that doesn’t have ankle-twisting holes is easier than one that does.
We stopped for a break at Battersbys Camp, a little more than halfway between Moleside Camp and our destination for the day, Pattersons Camp. there were a huge number of cars and tents in its car-camping campground, though there was only one person there, keeping an eye on things. At the hikers camp, a father and his two sons sat a picnic table, while we retreated to the shade of the shelter.
After about half an hour, we continued on. For the rest of the day, the trail alternated between grassy or dirt fire roads, and trail. We made relatively quick progress, though somewhat moderated by the hot sun.
As the afternoon progressed, it didn’t get any cooler, but a cool breeze did occasionally blow through, which was refreshing when it did.
We continued to see wallabies and echidnas the rest of the way to Pattersons Camp.
As we made our way to the west, we also traveled towards the sandstone cliffs we’ll see tomorrow along the river, and the ground itself became more sandy. The forest gradually changed character, changing from the taller trees of the Cobboboonee to shorter, more stunted growth. Shortly before arriving at Patterson Camp, the forest suddenly changed, picking up a new kind of plant that had lots of small fruits.
We arrived at Patterson Camp around 5:30, our latest of the trip. We were surprised to find two other hikers there, the first other hikers we’ve seen since we started. They’d canoed down the river from near Battersbys Camp to Nelson, and were hiking back to pick up their car.
Though an unexpected change to our evening routine, we had a nice conversation with them, and I was happy to have a nice change in the usual routine.
Living behind the signboard in the shelter were a pair of possums. They made their presence known mostly by knocking on the back of the sign, but once, one of them peeked its head above the top of the sign to look at us.
After sunset, we saw two koala sitting in a tree in camp, and continued to hear their mating calls.
Today was pretty exhausting, with the long distance. It was still warm, which was tiring (and sweaty), but fortunately, the weather had cooled down from its high a few days ago, or we would have had an utterly miserable day.
Tomorrow, a shorter day to Nelson, after which we’ll take a day off to rest.