TA Day 35: Wednesday 22 January 2025

Harper Campsite - Harper River / North of Cockayne Creek

Lukas woke up to an unread message from Barry. Barry was looking for a car to rent to go back to the trail to look for Ryuya. We also posted a message to both the WhatsApp group and Facebook group to see if anybody had seen him recently, so we knew if he had moved forward and that he was okay. But Barry was already off before we had the chance to update him on what others had written about Ryuya or before we had the chance to say goodbye to him, because if he left to go back to the trail... We probably wouldn't meet again.

We went to have breakfast again with Sam and Jan, but this time we had brought pancakes from the store and Jan brought boiled eggs, and bacon from his visit to the pub yesterday. It was such a feast now!

After breakfast we, Sam, Caleb and Jan sat outside the Methven Resort waiting for updates from Barry about Ryuya. On Facebook someone wrote that they saw him in A Frame Hut, and then we got a message from Barry saying that he found him and that he was bringing him back.

Meanwhile, we had squeezed all of us and all our packing (big and heavy after the resupply) into Sam's tiny Suzuki Jimny and was off towards the trail on the other side of the river. It took about two hours and the last part was along a bumpy gravel road. Interesting and fun but also warm and cramped 🥴 We also saw Lulu and Jules along the way! They started from Lake Coleridge/The Powerhouse, while we decided to start from Harpers Campsite as that is more straight across the river from where we left the trail, and made much more sense to us than one extra day along a gravel road in the wrong direction 🤔

Imagine opening the lid on a pot overfull with popcorn. That was what it looked (and felt like) once we opened the door and finally got out of the car.

After feasting on a cake and some beers that Jan had brought but didn't want to carry, we had to say goodbye to Sam and Caleb. Sam was done now and planned to go back home, and Caleb would go with her and rest for a few days and wait for Rose to finish the trail that she had missed.

Lukas' body was well-rested, but in every other way he was feeling very tired. The easy hike and talking to Jan made it a bit easier. After some hours of just easy walking along a 4WD-track, we found a really nice camp spot for us. Kim quickly went off for a swim, and actually went for a swim without Lukas(!) and Lukas was almost a bit upset, it almost felt like he had been cheated on. But since he didn't see it, and there was no evidence, it almost felt hard to believe.

Last thing that happened before we went to sleep, was a red helicopter flying back and forth above us. Twice it landed about 500 m from us. We have no idea what was going on, if there was a rescue, it still felt a bit strange how it moved around.

Would have been interesting to know what was going on.

Today's:

Distance: 17.62 km

Ascent: 231 m

Descent: 19 m

Tent nights: 25/35

Weather: Sunny and hot