Outback Adventures with Chards & Savvy B: The Hike

We did it!  Our hike has been and gone and contrary to popular belief, and perhaps some bets that may have been made, we really did it.  And guess what – it wasn’t too bad.  So let me walk you through what went down in hiking town.  There is a video diary for each day too.

**Can I just say that I still don’t know who I am.  Seriously, what is going on.  I kept asking myself this the whole hike.**

Last Friday I packed up my gear and headed over to Mrs Savvy B’s house.

I needed to get over there by about lunch time so we could lay all of our gear out on her table to see what we did and didn’t need.  Things weren’t looking too good for me given that I couldn’t even make into her house in one trip with all of my gear.  There was lots of laughing.  But we managed to cull and break it down to this…

Mr Savvy B and the little SB’s drove us up to where we would camp for our first night.  About an hours drive from their house.  We dropped water along the way.

It is a permanent camp set up that they have for their yearly top end muster in September.  They spend a few weeks camped up here mustering.  It is pretty cool.  There is even a flushing toilet (we didn’t use it for fear of snakes and spiders) and a shower.

We waved goodbye to Mr Savvy B and the kidlets and breathed in the silence.

We were all alone up there and boy it felt good.  No internet, no phones, no kids (god love them), no office…. no one!  We took a cooler bag up with some curry that Mrs Savvy B had cooked for dinner and slipped in a few sneaky beers to have that afternoon.  We set up camp and then went and sat by the river and relaxed.  There was even a little freshwater croc in the waterhole.

Once back at camp we built a fire, popped the curry in the camp oven and had dinner.  It was so lovely kicking back around the fire.  There is really nothing better.  I love a good camp fire.  When packing we skimped on essentials so we could fit our hip flasks of port in.  We were so glad we did.  Sitting by the fire sipping port.  Who are we?

By about 7:30pm there was really nothing much else to do but go to bed.  We were wishing we had brought a book to read.  Anyway we headed into our tent and found out just how uncomfortable a sleeping bag on the hard ground really is. Oh and did I mention the super uncomfortable blow up pillow???  Anyway, we kept thinking about all the unfortunate people in the world who don’t even have a bed, let alone a warm sleeping bag and manned the hell up.  There were numb bums and sore hips but we made it through with some sleep.  All was good.

Day One

Next morning we heated up the left over curry and had a decent breakfast before we set off.  We were all packed up and ready to go by 7:30am.  This was it, time to hike.  I couldn’t believe we were really doing it.  We planned to go 22km’s on the first day.

Between the saggy boobs and the bum back I am lost for words my friends… is this a midlife crisis?

Things weren’t looking good after 1km.  Mrs Savvy B stopped with a very sore shoulder.  Now Mrs Savvy B is one tough chick so this alarmed me ever so slightly.  I told her we needed to deal with it now before it got worse.  So we dealt with it in the old fashioned way: Nurofen, Panadol & Voltaren Cream!  2 minutes later she was a new woman.  We just kept those drugs up to her for the rest of the hike and she was as good as gold.  We eventually managed to adjust our backpacks so they were just right.  Look at them, aren’t they cute…

The scenery on that first day was spectacular.  Absolutely stunning.  We really enjoyed it.  We had lots of little stops along the way.

Our favourite break was lunch in a dry river bed.  We had the corned beef sandwich we had packed the day before, boiled the billy (well – our quart pots) and had a coffee.  It was fantastic.  We really loved those little breaks.  The weather was very kind to us on day one: a beautiful breeze, not too hot and there was plenty of shade along the way to pull of for a little sit down.

We arrived at our planned camp spot but it was really early so we kept walking for another 4km’s.  We had left a 5 litre water bottle at our planned camp area so we had to really load ourselves up with water.  Those last 4km’s were pretty tough with all the weight we were carrying and there were a few big hills to cross, but we made it and with time to spare.  We were at camp by 4:30pm.

VIDEO DIARY…

We made it to a little set of cattle yards and we thought that would be a good spot to set up our tent – in the yard where we were a little bit protected.  We were set up in no time at all. Found some wood, made a fire and sat down for a little bit of port and nibbles.

Gosh it was good to kick off those shoes and relax.  Thank god for that little tipple of port.  I felt a bit like a sailor drinking out of that hip flask.  Ha ha ha ha.

Then it was time to cook dinner…. our dehydrated meal of Honey Soy Chicken.  We were skeptical to say the least.  All we had to do was boil some water and add one cup to the packet.  The packet doubled as a bowl – perfect.  Anyway – I can honestly say it was YUMMY!!!  I would give it a Hiking Masterchef score of 11/10.  I am not kidding you.  Mrs Savvy B even agreed, it was very tasty.  Even had vegetables in it.

We were not looking forward to another night on that hard ground.  But managed to survive with perhaps a little more sleep than the first night on hard ground.

Day Two

We set our alarm for 6am the next morning and were up and at it in the dark, stoking up the fire, packing up the tent and boiling our quart pots for a coffee.  We were off again by 7:30am.

We found a gorgeous little waterhole to set up camp for smoko…

Because it was decided that we would make it home that evening we pulled out the Maggi 2 minute noodles for smoko, and as luck would have it they fit perfectly in our quart pots.  Thanks for the tip Liz.

Off we went again…

The first half of day two wasn’t all that bad.  Our feet were pretty good.  I did put a blister tape on one of my toes before we left, but that was it. By about lunch time we were onto the downs country.  Good cattle country but BLOODY BORING!!!!!!

You can see a loooooooonnnnnnggggg way ahead and it isn’t much fun.  The ground was a bit rough, it was very hot and there wasn’t much shade.  So from about lunch time on we trudged along in silence.  Although Mrs Savvy B did get quite a lot of abuse hurled at her for about 4 hours straight.  There was a lot of swearing followed by a lot of laughing.  If we didn’t laugh we may well have cried.

Mr Savvy B came to check on us in the chopper at one stage.  What – did he think we wouldn’t make it?  Did he think we may have wanted out?  No way!  But it was nice of him to think of us.   We assured him we had enough water and waved him off.

Feet were sore and blisters were forming.  We went much further on that second day than we had thought.  I think all up we did about 30km.  No wonder we were feeling very sad and sorry for ourselves.  But, by crikey, we were not spending one more night in that tent on hard ground.  We made a deal that we would make it home that night come hell or high water.

We stopped about 4km’s from home.  Our feet were so sore and we needed to pop some blisters and tape them up.  It was 4:30pm.  We sat in the shade for a while and gave our feet a break.  Then we were off on our final leg.  Just 4 more kilometres.  We can do it.  You should have seen us hobbling off from that break, oh dear lord, it was so funny, we couldn’t stop laughing at ourselves.

We were greeted by a little welcoming committee not far from the homestead: the little Savvy B’s. They clapped us in. It was so cute.

Home sweet home and the promise of a lovely shower followed by a cold Chardy not to mention the rump steak and salad – YUM.  We did it.  We made it.

VIDEO DIARY…

Again: I will have to put it on Facebook.

Our first hike.  Oh and yes – we are still friends.   It was only a 2 day hike and certainly not Everest or Kilimanjaro but we are very proud of ourselves and looking forward to our next adventure.

So tell me, would you want to go hiking with Mrs Savvy B?  
Perhaps she should start Hiking Tours for all of you fine adventurers out there?  Thoughts?
Do you think the Dehydrated food is yummy too?