Distance today: 21.7km
Distance total: 2039.2km
Time hiked: 4h 22min
Time total: 595h 42min
Rain all night long and it's still drizzling while I eat my late breakfast in the common kitchen of the Backpackers.
Pelorus Bridge, today's destination, is only a 21 kilometer or 4.5 hours road bash away - I'm in no rush at all to leave the cozy, dry Backpackers.
To kill the time, I chat a little to a kayak instructor. He and some colleagues are supposed to take 50 school kids down Pelorus River. As the water level is too high, they have to wait as well, respectively try to find an alternative.
No alternative for me than to walk... At 10:30 I get too nervous and hit the road despite the drizzle.
Obviously not much to write about the hike itself. Initially along the busy Highway, the trail then crosses the wide Pelorus River via a bridge and follows a quiet metalled road more or less parallel to the river and the Highway. It's a bit of a detour but much more pleasant to walk here than on the shoulder of the Highway and dodging cars.
The official trail would then follow the true left of the river over pasture for the last few kilometers. As the track looks flooded and muddy, I decide to bash the Highway shoulder again for the remaining kilometers to the DOC camp - a fully serviced camp with hot showers and a lovely little Cafe. It's actually more like a Holiday Park.
I check-in and pick-up up my terribly heavy food box and repack everything into a dry bag, which I attach to my backpack. No way it would fit in the pack...
With that done, I head back to the Cafe to get rid of all my coins. Heaps of coins. Enough coins for a lentil-curry tart, cones and a double scoop ice cream - my last one till St. Arnaud :(
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