We had dinner last night with a couple of ladies, Elizabeth & Robin who are also doing the E2E but a couple of days behind us. They are doing their journey using B&B’s and shuttle services the entire way.
We were up early, fed and away the same as yesterday. Doug dropped us off 3km short of Jacksons Cove, which was 21km from our destination for the day. He had warned us that there were 2 really rocky sections on today's section, 2km at Jacksons Cove with the next 1km before Hope Bay. I think he got a bit mixed up as there was 3km of extreme rocky bits with another 3km of very rocky bits, 1 big rocky climb up a Bluff with corresponding very rocky descents on each side of Hope Bay. The first 8 km took us 4 hours, a bit better than the monster 6 hours for 9km on our 2nd day. The bits in between were absolutely fabulous hiking trail. The whole package was beautiful with some very challenging bits along the way.
The sunrise shining through the trees lit them up with reddish hue that was magnificent. Once again the vegetation was magnificent with moss covered rocks and fallen trees, soft decaying leaf litter and a plethora of Fungi, all bathed in dappled sunlight filtering through the foliage above. Mostly along a trail at the top of the bluff with the trail skirting perilously close to the cliff face on a number of occasions, still with no “Cliff Risk” sign to be seen. Coming up the bluff after leaving Hope Bay was reasonably steep until we hit the cliff face and then there was a ladder ascending about 5m, some more steep rocks and then another set of steep stairs up 5m. More rocky trail up and around the bluff until it was time to descend to Sydney bay. The descent here started with a 10m set of steel stairs then just more rocks and more rocks on a very steep descent of about 70m in 400m to the car park at the bottom. The remaining walk in was a breeze apart from dodging the poison ivy.
We arrived at the camp site and set up the tent then the food hanging system to keep our stuff away from any marauding Black Bears that apparently come down off the escarpment checking the camp sites for any food scraps on their way to the bay to drink.
All in all a fabulous and successful day, we covered the distance without only a couple of stumbles and most importantly Lari covered the full distance with a full pack and her knee held firm. This trail is as mentally draining and it is physically because of the strain of concentrating where every footfall goes, then remembering to look up to confirm you are actually still on the trail. We will sleep well tonight that’s for sure.