A hot day of trails and dirt roads brought us to Nelson, just over halfway around the Great South West Walk.
Since we got to sleep a little late yesterday, we were up a little late this morning, but we were all done with camp and on our way before 8 am — before the couple we met yesterday had gotten out of their tent.
For much of the day, the GSWW followed either dirt roads, or trail paralleling (usually) dirt roads, as it continued following the meanders of the Glenelg River. Where plausible, the trail followed close to the edge of the cliffs along the river. In a couple of places, this meant a wooden fence had been built for a short distance because the trail was so close to the edge of the cliff it would otherwise be dangerous. (A few viewpoints probably should also have had fences, including one that had been somehow heroically cleared to improve the view, despite the sheer drop-off.)
Until we got to Nelson, the only people we saw today were two bikers, who’d parked their bikes and followed a short connection from the road to take in a view over the river. Clearly unaware of the GSWW, they correctly guessed we were walking to Nelson, but were quite surprised to hear that we didn’t park our car anywhere and that we’d started walking from Portland.
As we got closer to the ocean, the limestone cliffs along the river became more prominent, as their steepness meant vegetation couldn’t cling to them very well. In places, the erosion of the limestone was evident, with what would have been small caves had their bottoms not fallen off the side of the hill.
As morning advanced, without clouds in the sky, it got quite warm out. With the heat, we took more (and longer) breaks than I expected today, which also delayed our arrival in town, but it was better to pace ourselves than needlessly rush in to town.
While nearly the entire Great South West Walk is in Victoria, a roughly 4 km section is in neighboring South Australia. This also marks for the first time on a hike that I’ve changed time zones, and also the first time I’ve been in a half-hour offset timezone! (Australian Central Time is half an hour before Australian Eastern Time observed in Victoria.) A sign on a dirt road a short distance before the border marked the entrance to the “SA Sector” of the Lower Glenelg National Park, but the border itself had no obvious markers.
This section of trail was a bit rockier than usual for the GSWW, and parts were ripped up pretty well by echidnas, but it wasn’t too bad. The most striking part was the very red sections of trail.
Trying to stop for a break was slightly challenging. There were a lot of ants. The nicest place we wanted to sit down at had an anthill a meter tall. The next place also had ants. Clearly, the echidnas were slacking here.
Back in Victoria, the trail followed sandy roads for a while, parts of which were loose sand and a pain to walk on. I guess it’s good practice for the beach walking coming up after Nelson, but hopefully the tides will be on our side and there will be more hard sand than soft. When the road wasn’t sandy, we made fast progress, but it was hot and exposed; the forest here was pretty thin, and the sun high in the sky.
We did see an emu in the brush, though it quickly ran off as we passed it on the road.
We took our last break at Simsons Camp, 3 km before town. This was the first camp whose privy didn’t have toilet paper since Cubby’s Camp on day 1, but this was unsurprising given its proximity to town and that it was almost directly on the dirt road. If it hadn’t been as hot as it was, we could have easily made it into town without stopping, but also, we weren’t really in a rush.
As we neared the town “center”, the trail took us through a small neighborhood, in the space between the river and a road and houses. (There were some houses also down the cliff towards the water.) it was a rather nice open space, with the odd picnic table or bench scattered around at views over the water.
The last stretch of trail for the day took us over a nice boardwalk built behind the visitor information center.
Nelson is small, with the information center, an RV park, a gas station, and couple of motels, as the only obvious businesses. (Though given the water sports boats we saw on the river on our way in, presumably there are other small businesses as well.) A Kiosk (a small general store) was closed some time ago, apparently because the building was old, dilapidated, and condemned. Wikipedia cites the most recent census as 191 people. We stayed at the Nelson Hotel, an old hotel, bar, and bistro, which still seemed to have relatively constant business, likely from the RV park across the street.
We checked in, and ordered two Hawaiian pizzas from the bar. (They were a bit surprised that we ordered one each, but after a week of hiking, it was no problem to devour them.
Before we started, we’d talked with the owner about how we might get to Mount Gambier (the nearest larger town, about half an hour away) to resupply. They were no longer able to take us in, and another resident who might have been able to help was uncertain if they were even going in to town tomorrow at all, but we were able to arrange to order our resupply online for pickup, and one of the hotel’s staff who lives in Mount Gambier would pick our food up on their way in to work tomorrow. This was a lifesaver! (Otherwise, we might have had to try and hitch into town, and that might have been an all-day affair.)
After our pizza lunch, and showers, and ordering our resupply, we returned to the bar to order dinner (cheeseburgers, delicious), and met Steve and Alesia, whom we’d camped with last night at Patersons Camp, and continued our nice conversation with them.
Tomorrow will be a nice, lazy rest day, and we’re looking forward to it!