Saturday 5 Jan 2019

Dave had brought eggs and thick slices of back bacon for breakfast as well. What a guy! It was delicious. Another splendid encounter with a most gracious, generous and kind human being.

The trail initially followed forest roads that gradually became narrower and narrower and finally became a rough little track.

But it soon became a real road again that after bypassing the Emery Bridge near Gundiah started to become smaller and rougher once again.

Eventually, about 10 – 15 kms before Miva, the trail completely disappeared. There were some trail markers, but if there still was a trail it was so overgrown that I couldn’t make it out any further. I tried to go around the spot by following a red line on the topo map, but it ended up disappearing too. Paul, a fellow who is just building a house right there, invited me in for a beer but he had only just moved there a few months ago and didn’t quite know what to suggest either. But he told me to check with his neighbours who I had passed a bit further back. John and his son Simon offered me a beer as well, and a Vegemite sandwich, which both went down smooth as silk. Simon is actually the guy who is building Paul’s new place. They both confirmed that the trail had indeed washed out in a big flood they had and that I wasn’t the first one to find it impossible to continue on. So we all agreed that it would be best to cross the Mary River at the Emery Bridge and detour via Gundiah. But is was early afternoon already and they offered I could camp here and have a swim in the Mary and dinner will be served after 6:30! Simon showed me the trail down to the river and had a swim as well before going back to Paul’s place to do some more work. The water is just a perfect temperature, perhaps the warmest I’ve come upon yet. He gave me a quick tour of his house, which is just below John’s place and very much a work in progress, slowly being assembled from all matter of recycled or reusable materials. I pitched my tent right beside his place.

Paul came over for dinner as well so we had a very convivial supper with the four of us. John had done the cooking: steaks with smashed potatoes, pumpkin and broccoli. Delish and enormous servings — I couldn’t even quite finish mine, but their dog had no trouble cleaning off my plate. Then Paul served us some port from a bag, actually very nice port. Perhaps I should carry some of that with me, IF it’s available in just a small box of 2L or so. John played his guitar a bit and Paul joined in with his harmonicas — a super evening, so totally unplanned, completely accidental and unforgettable.

My only question is: why did Dave not mention this section? Does he not know about it? It would have been really easy to circumnavigate had I known in advance and without wasting so much time to get around it. But that is the nice part of not being on any timeline: I can just make camp wherever it suits me and this is was as pleasant a place as any.

Totals: 38k 4:00h 460m+ 515m-