Waking up this morning was hard. It was bitterly cold and everything was still a little damp not a good combination at all. The good thing was that the clouds had disappeared to reveal a beautiful blue sky but the sun was yet to crest the top of the valley so we packed up in the shade and our fingers were like blocks of ice!!
We skipped breakfast and decided to put on our slightly damp and freezing cold boots and set off to both warm up and try and get into the sun. We found a spot after about 2 km and both started to feel a whole lot warmer and better.
Our hike today took us up to a ridge line which offered stupendous views of the hike we had already done over the last 7 days and it was lovely walking along enjoying our 360 degree views.
We were going to stop on the top for a cup of tea but unfortunately our summit coincided with a couple of guided tour groups so there wasn’t quite the room but to be fair there probably wasn’t quite the shelter anyway so we kept plodding on.
As we descended into Serpentine gorge and our campground for the night we picked up our food drop which was to be the largest of the trip as we were getting 7 days of food (plus treats).
We were pretty loaded up when we arrived at the campground which was probably one of the most disappointing of the hike so far and didn’t seem to have enough room for everyone. We found ourselves a spot which was lucky because it was one of the last and people still seemed to keep arriving.
We had just about enough time for a quick walk around the gorge which was pretty spectacular before heading back to our site and relaxing for a little bit eating our crisps and Oreos and soaking up the warmth of the afternoon sun.
We jumped into the tent and our sleeping bags pretty early as the cold was coming in as soon as the sun went down. In fact while we were on the ridge line we were able to get some phone service so managed to get a weather forecast which was a bit of a shock to us both as for the next five nights it was going to get as low as minus 2 (lower with wind chill) and some days the highs were only going to get up to 11. Some chilly times ahead. T