- Start date: 6 June 2020
- Age When Completed: 61
- Direction Walked: Sectional
- Others in Group:
Lesley Howard
General Comments
I still can’t believe that we managed to complete our sectional E2E in under a year especially as we started out with no trail fitness whatsoever & a gap of over 2 decades since we last did any serious hiking!
Food/Supplies Comments
Mainly used Radix dehydrated meals for our dinners combined with Deb, couscous or rice.
Our favourite lunch was Pics peanut butter slugs with mini-toasts &, during the colder months, Carmens instant porridge with powdered milk was a good start to the day along with some decent coffee!
Favourite Section
Hard to say really but the section between Walpole to Peaceful Bay still ranks very highly as it was also the first section that I completed as a multi-day hike over 25 years ago!
Highlights
Being woken up at first light by the sounds of the “Dawn Chorus” in full swing!
Witnessing some stunning sunrises & sunsets in simply beautiful locations.
Personal Reactions
We started out slow & cautiously by doing some day walks just to see how our bodies held up to the rigours of the track.
Surprisingly they held up well so we progressed to completing some overnight hikes followed by increasingly longer multi-day hikes.
After that the desire & determination to complete the whole track took over & upon return from completing a section we immediately started planning our next hike.
Wildlife
Saw all of the usual species including many snakes but a particular highlight was our encounter with an echidna on the top of Mt Vincent.
Your Best Equipment
Without a doubt, my Helinox Causeway trekking poles as they helped reduce the load on my dodgy knee & allowed me to complete the track.
Coming a close second was my custom made down quilt combined with my S2S Etherlight sleeping pad which enabled me to get a good nights sleep. In fact I love sleeping under my quilt so much that I’ll never ever go back to using a sleeping bad again!
Other gear worth an honourable mention, my Tarptent Double Rainbow Li tent, Soto Windmaster stove, Steripen UV water purifier & Helinox umbrella, all of which performed really well without any issues.
Finally, one last piece of gear that weighed next to nothing (60gms) but has many, many uses was my Thermarest Z-seat, don’t ever go on the track without one!
Your Worst Equipment
Happy to be able to say nothing really as I’d done heaps & heaps of research before our trips & was able to really “dial in” our gear beforehand &, luckily, it all worked out well as we didn’t have any failures on the track.
Advice for Others
Keep your pack weight as low as possible, definitely under 14kg with food & water, as it makes a HUGE difference to both your overall enjoyment of the track & helps reduce the risk of injuries.