Thursday 16th November
West Langford Aqueduct – Madison hut site
Hiked 23.98
Total 281.2
Ascent 1018
Descent 948
Weather cool and dry to start, stayed cool became overcast threatened rain and then the sun came out again
Food
Breakfast noodles and coffee
Lunch ryvitas ham, cheese and Vegemite and corn chips (see a recurring theme!)
Dinner chicken tikka Marsala and chocolate brownie pudding
Off we go at just after 7am. About 2km down the trail we see a small school group from Yarra Valley we talk to the teacher and two outdoor educators for a while and a couple of boys come and join the conversation. One boy says “I caught a fish yesterday!” One of the educators shows a photo of the boy holding a lovely brown trout unfortunately it was 5cm undersize so he threw it back. In talking to the teacher he told us that the kids do all the cooking and the reason their packs look so big and heavy is they are carrying basic stuff not like our lightweight stuff. It’s their last day hiking today they are getting picked up at Windy Corner.
After a while we are thinking about stopping for a cuppa and as we approach an intersection of four trails we see four people walking down the hill towards us. It turns out to be “4 non-blondes” a group of four women hiking the AAWT SOBO they left Canberra about a week before we hit the trail.
I give them all a hug as I feel like I know them from reading their posts on Facebook we swap stories for a while and soon they leave they are planning to stay at Cope hut tonight.
We decide to stop for an early lunch at Ropers hut there is a loo woohoo and a swooping magpie boooo 🤣 we have a lovely restful break even manage a ten minute kip.
It’s only about 6kms to our next stop but it’s a steep descent and a river crossing and then a steep climb up.
The climb up and the hike to our stop makes our hike since lunch more like 8kms but we found no a really good spot next to a running creek. We have coffee and a bar and have time to wash our legs, socks and undies and hang them out to dry.
The Adventures of FishnChips 