Hiking Mount Cole - Our first overnight trip

So now that James and I have completely recovered from the blunders and pitfalls that was our first overnight trip, it's finally time to put pen to paper and tell you all about it.

We set out on a Wednesday morning, leaving James' house at about 9:30am and finally arriving at the foot of Mount Cole at around 10:30. I didn't see this as a huge deal as I figured that we take around eight hours to arrive and should get there with at least a couple hours worth of sun to spare. I was wrong on so many levels.

We parked the car at Richard's camp ground and threw on our packs. This was when I knew this was going to be more difficult than anticipated, my pack was far heavier than I had planned for. I had over-packed in both weight and pack capacity. This resulted in sore chest, shoulders and back as well as increased strain on my knees and hips.

Let the pain begin

The first leg of the hike was a hike we had made around a year prior up to Raglan Falls, which was painful enough the first time but somehow making it a second time did not ease the suffering. We had already taken several breaks at this point and were both sweating profusely. The views along the way were absolutely spectacular, which made my aching muscles and joints just tolerable but did nothing to ease my breathlessness.

It honestly looked like something out of Avatar

It was after we stopped at a lookout giving us a view of the path we had just traversed, as well as Mount Langi Ghiran a few kilometers away, that James informed me that we would not be making it to the Beeripmo camp grounds at our current pace. I had decided to munch on some plumbs and bananas while we were there and dismissed him as being pessimistic. Yet again, I was wrong on so many levels.

The view from the lookout. Such lovely scenery.

Reluctantly, we threw our packs back on and pushed on at a snail's pace towards our destination. It was about two kilometers from our next destination of Cave Hill that James suggested a shortcut, which would shave off quite a large chunk of our walk, however we would still likely get to camp well after dark. I should also mention that this occurred when we had passed Ditchfield camp ground and could still see it in the distance.

We decided to stop for lunch at a very conveniently placed park bench that had been carved out of a log. We sat and pondered the decision whether or not to continue whilst we ate, eventually coming to the conclusion to see how we were looking after reaching Cave Hill. We pushed on and the terrain seemed to almost even out, whilst still walking at an incline it was an acceptable incline given the hell that we had just hiked up.

We reached our next preliminary destination and re-evaluated. Broken down and beaten, we conceded defeat and sulked back down to Ditchfield camp grounds. Whilst it was not our first choice to camp for the night, it was actually a lovely camp ground. There was tank water available, a large and open grass patch for people to pitch their tents as well as numerous fire pits around the area.

James and I found a nice grouping of trees close to a fire pit,  hung our hammocks, collected some fire wood and decided to relax for a little bit. The sky was clear, the sun wasn't too hot and the breeze wasn't too cold. It was relaxing, the scenery was pretty, the smell of eucalyptus hung in the air and the company was great. Things seemed to be working well for us. For the third time that day, I was wrong on so many levels.

Relaxing in the hammock before putting the tarp up

We got a fire going not long after setting up camp and I very stupidly decided to unload my gear from my pack. Not just my food and my billy can, but my spare clothes, my compass, my tea and coffee kit, my fire lighting kit, all of my cutting tools, all of the spare blankets I had brought and to go all out moron I even took my shoes off and left them on the picnic bench, uncovered and unpacked with the rest of my gear. I figured with only an eighteen percent chance of showers that we would not get rain. Once more, I could not have been more wrong.

Honestly, would you be expecting rain?

We made dinner, which consisted of rice, salmon, beans and Stagg chilli. James neglected to mention when he started cooking the chilli that he was intending to share, so I had already eaten my salmon and decent portion of rice beforehand. Needless to say, we were very well fed that night. It is worth mentioning that we had some friends hanging around whilst we ate in the form of European wasps. Whilst the wasps went away after the sun went down, after we had finished dealing with the wasps, the bull ants decided to come out. How did we discover this in the dark? Well my right foot must look very tasty to a bull ant because I felt a huge stinging pain on the instep. It was by far some of the most excruciating pain I have ever felt. With that horrible experience, I decided to go to bed for the night.

After struggling for a couple of hours to get comfortable, I finally got to sleep. I'm not sure what time I got to sleep but I was rudely awakened at around 02:00am by some wetness on my forehead. Unfortunately, the way I had put the tarp up, it had left my head exposed to the sky. I did not see this as a big deal at the time due to the low chance of rain, however it certainly came back to bite me in the ass. The rain did not let up and steadily became heavier. I shout across to James and woke him up, before collecting my gear from where I had left it and placed it under the tarp, only to see James simply get up, grab his pack(with all his gear in it) and punch a one way ticket to the hut.

I spent the better part of about half an hour messing around, trying to pack up my gear in the rain and followed him into the hut. Luckily for us, the case that I keep my fire making kit in happens to be water proof. We spent some time getting a fire going and drying off. I had the sense to collect my blankets and sleeping bag, lay them out in front of the fire and at least try and get some sleep. It was around 04:00am before I had decided to try and get to sleep, although it wasn't very restful.

My wet gear laid out as soon as we got into the hut

Drying our stuff out and my makeshift bedding

I was awakened in the morning a little more gently than I had been during the night. Instead of waking up to rain on my face, I woke up to the sound of James getting more fire wood, birds chirping outside and to the smell of baked beans cooking on the fire. I spent the better part of the morning trying to get my pack together and reduce food weight, whilst James waited, ready, with his back packed a good two hours before we even stepped out of the hut.

The walk back down took us around forty-five minutes, as far cry from the hours of hiking we had done the day before and it was much easier. The hike back, whilst not painless, was very much the easy part of the camping trip. Despite all of the pain and mistakes, I thoroughly enjoyed the trip and learned alot of lessons along the way.

My main take away points are to make sure that before I go to bed for the night, all of my stuff is packed away. Regardless of whether or not I think it is going to rain, there is still a good chance that it will. Secondly, my woolen socks are an invaluable part of my kit. Even when they were soaked, they still kept my feet warm. Third, I need to downsize my kit. I carry far too much and need to learn to get by with less, which leads into my last point. I simply need more dirt time. The more time I spend out hiking, the better equipped I will be as far as my skills go, which means that I won't have any need for so much kit.