We awoke on day 6 at about 6am having had an interrupted sleep due to a fairly heavy downpour during the night. Although we trusted our new super duper tent it’s always a little daunting the first night relying on it to keep you dry but it did so next time we will definitely sleep a little better.
During our last afternoon in Ormiston a lot of the conversation was around weather forecasts as while everyone was pretty much agreed that we were due some rain and maybe some wind it was really a question of how much. Reports ranged from 1mm over the whole day to downpours of 25mm and high wind. So quite frankly we didn’t really know who to listen to so asked the locals who were running the kiosk who laughed and said it could be just about anything but assured us that it wouldn’t be too bad.
Well by the time we had got up and had a breakfast and a cup of tea it still wasn’t raining. We had all our gear packed ready for any weather that might come our way and set off on what was going to be a hike of around 15km up Mt Giles and then down to a campsite called Waterfall Gorge. Our packs were quite heavy as we had no water refills available until the following night and while we had a destination in mind we decided to see what happened with the weather and if we needed to stop and make camp we would.
As we had spent an extra day in Ormiston today was also our first day hiking with our new group of hikers heading east and as far as we could tell that consisted of one guy who we met briefly in the morning but he also wasn’t sure on his plan for the day or where he was going to camp. So maybe we were going to get a bit of time by ourselves out in this captivating part of the world.
Even though the sun wasn’t out it was nice and cool and beautiful hiking weather and we had a lovely time chatting away eating up the kms and before we knew it we were at the base of the main climb for the day. The clouds were covering the tops of the mountains and we were walking right into them so it was time to don the rain jackets and get ready for the misty rain of the clouds.
Just as we were getting to the top of the ridge the skies cleared and we were treated with some wonderful vistas in all directions. It was truly breathtaking. A little way along the ridge was a campsite called Hermits Hideaway that we had heard good reports about mainly for the commanding views and sheltered campsites.
The views were still on show when we arrived and we decided to stop and have a cup of tea. It was perfect timing as we got about halfway through our cuppas when once again the clouds rolled in and we couldn’t see a whole lot. To be fair it was a little cold and miserable and since it was only 1:30 we decided to push on the Mt Giles and then descend to Waterfall Gorge and make camp there.
The summit of Mt Giles offered us next to no views due to the cloud but as we descended the steep slope to Waterfall Gorge the weather started to clear.
We weren’t sure whether we had made the right decision to push on but every km we did today was one less tomorrow and then there was also the worry that we could have had the campsite at the top of the mountain to ourselves as when we stopped for our cup of tea we were the first there.
Well on the way down we met 3 groups all heading up the hill to make camp so we were keeping our fingers crossed that no one else had stopped at the bottom of the hill.
We arrived at the dry riverbed at the bottom fairly knackered and then had a last 800m of scrambling up the riverbed before we got to the campsite to discover that indeed we did have our own slice of the National Park for the night which was wonderful.
The other thing that was wonderful was that we were able to set up camp in the dry.
Just as we were relaxing in our chairs however the heavens opened and we had to get inside the tent. It was a little difficult to fully relax as unfortunately it turns out that day 6 was the day all our gear (and us too) had started to really smell. So there we were in our own part of the beautiful national park sat in a stinky tent. We obviously just laughed.
It certainly wasn’t a bad day or night just a bit of a shame that it wasn’t the wondrous day full of amazing vistas that it could have been. The section we were on was meant to offer some of the best views of the hike and we only got glimpses of what could have been. T