Today I made a concerted effort to get up earlier and not be so “late” out of camp. I wanted to see if I could get most of the walk done in the morning when it is cooler and maybe avoid snake encounters. I made it out of camp at 7.45am, not too bad!
The river walk was more varied and interesting to me compared to the forest walk. There were lots of views of the Glenelg River along the track.
At one point a Kookaburra flew onto a low branch of a tree just ahead of me. I thought it would fly away as I approached but it just stayed there, keeping an eye on me but not too fussed about how close I was. I said hello, took his picture and moved on.
After around 18kms I walked into Battersbys Camp a little after 1pm. And no snakes seen today! The weather was quite mild with a few sunny patches and plenty of snakey grass. But getting the walk done mostly in the morning worked.
Ryan was keen to push on for Pattersons campsite a further 12 kms. He wanted to get to Nelson tomorrow and enjoy two nights there with a full rest day on Saturday before taking on the coast section. So he and Erin kept going while Paul and Judy and I stayed to enjoy a pleasant afternoon at Battersbys.
I found a pretty good hang site with two gum trees not too big and looked reasonably healthy although they had a bit of a lean towards each other. As with all the sites so far not perfect but doable. Up went the hammock and tarp and then I had quite a few hours to relax before dinner and bed.
I sat in the shelter and wrote some notes about the last few days. At some point I felt something strange in my pants. I lifted my shirt and looked at my belly just about level with my appendix scar and saw blood oozing out of a puncture mark. Leech! I stood up to get my first aid kit to clean it and put on a Band-Aid. As I walked to my pack the leech fell down the inside of my left trouser leg and fell out on to the ground, looking very fat. I tried to clean the blood and put a Band-Aid reinforced with some elastic tape. That did not last long as the blood kept coming. I got some toilet paper and put that over the top to absorb the blood and some more elastic tape to hold it there. That seemed to do the trick. When I pulled it off next morning it was soaked in blood. Yuck!
With that drama out of the way it was time to sort dinner. Judy got a fire going but we did not have much suitable wood to burn. After a couple of hours it petered out and it was off to bed. I got very hot in my quilt and woke up sweating around 2am. I went to the toilet which cooled me down a bit and managed to get back to sleep ok. Overall I am sleeping quite well. No back pain which was my main complaint with the tent.
Nugget Walks 
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