Today I had one simple goal: make my pack smell less horrifying. Oh, and eat lots of bbq. Well, I got one of those things done.

Not that I didn’t try to get my pack to smell less horrifying, but at this point I think I need something a bit stronger than what Mirazyme claims to be able to do. Like a whole bottle of vinegar or something. I dunno. We’ll see how I feel after walking tomorrow.

I forgot I also needed to get my food sorted. I sent a box from Hanmer Springs with the majority of the food I’d be carrying for the next section, and picked up a few things from the local store to fill it out. Then I needed to repack the things that needed repacking and get it ready to go into my pack.

Over the past month and a half I’ve narrowed down what I eat on the trail:

Bumper bar or muesli for breakfast.

Bars of various types while walking. I don’t really stop for lunch, I just eat on the go and stop to rest when I feel like it but they don’t necessarily go hand in hand.

First dinner is pasta, half a sauce packet, pile of powdered milk, a cup a soup packet and a packet of tuna

Second dinner is the same without the tuna and with any cheese I might have.

So I made up meals. I have 9 baggies, in each one is pasta, 2 soup packets, and a sauce. Easy. No fumbling around for all of the ingredients, just grab a baggie and go. I’ll still need to dig out the milk powder but that’s ok.

For breakfast I had a 600g muesli package I split into 3 breakfasts and the others will be bumper bars.

I have cous cous for 3 of my pastas in case I start running low on fuel but I just got a new can so it should last me the whole time. Also just as a way to change things up a bit I guess. I dunno.

I also got a lot more candy this time. I was really enjoying having candy in the last stretch, so I doubled down on that. And brought a big bar of chocolate too. Why not. Junk food city.

I have roughly 10-11 days worth of food, depending how you split it as I have some extra dinners and one “day” worth of food that is just potatoes and a flavor packet. I am guessing this section will take me 7-8 days. But since it’s very weather dependent, having extra food isn’t a bad thing. Plus it lets me take shorter days here and there if I need to.

Speaking of which, in this next section there are huts basically every 4 hours. So I can half day full day long day whatever as I please. It’s pretty cool. Though I fully intend to give myself a full day to get over the Rintouls. Not so much that I’ll need it, the notes say it’s a 4 hour section, but it’s also one of the best views on the trail, and the last major obstacle between here and the finish line. If the weather is nice I will probably stop up there, eat lunch, read a bit, I dunno. It’s also the most weather dependent part of this section, so there’s a chance I’ll be hanging out for an extra day or so just before it waiting for a clear day. I really want a clear day for it so I have good views.

Pretty nervous about this section. 10 days of food is heavy. There is a 2 day stretch where there’s no water between huts. There’s one section that DOC has put out a notice about severe trail degradation, and I need to figure out the bypass route for it. Weather plays a big role in this section, and I have some wet weather ahead. The Rintouls themselves are physically difficult crossings. Lots to worry about.

One thing that’s nice about this section is 2 days from the end I can bail out to a town pretty easily. I can resupply there and head back out, or whatever needs to happen. But that basically gives me 2 extra buffer days in the schedule just in case.

Anywho, back to bbq. As expected, it’s not bbq in the Texas sense. It was grilled food. But a lot of it. And most pretty good. Definitely hit the spot!

Oh! And I learned a thing about sandflies at the DOC visitor center. They had a signboard outside with info. Sandflies are terrible things. They are up there with tussock on the list of things I won’t miss when I’m back home.

The lake is very nice.

Ok it’s like 1am I can’t sleep but I need to. Fortunately I can make tomorrow a short day if I want, and probably will, especially with the heavy pack and such!