adventures, travel
Published on July 9, 2019
Comments 23

Bushwalking off-track in Kakadu? Don’t forget your key (Part 2)

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Over 50 and still love to bushwalk

Over 50 & still love to hike in true wilderness #Australia #Kakadu #Nature

Where am I/what am I doing? PART 1 HERE

For 10 seconds, I ran the newspaper headline through my mind:

“53-yr old woman succumbs to heat exhaustion while bashing through the untamed Australian wilderness, within 100 metres of fresh water & a clearly-marked track.”

No.

That is absolutely NOT going to happen.

But shit: my water bottle IS empty; this backpack IS damn heavy; it IS over 30 degrees C (86F); & we are definitely NOT going the right way.

‘What are you doing G’ ask the readers of bone&silver again? Well PART 1 is here again.

True wilderness #Australia #Kakadu #Nature
True wilderness #Australia #Kakadu #Nature
True wilderness #Australia #Kakadu #Nature

When I was offered the chance for this adventure, I jumped.

Bushwalking and tourism management is important

True wilderness #Australia #Kakadu #Nature

Kakadu National Park is vast, and some locations even require a permit and key to a locked gate, as the Management team control the balance between tourism and protecting the diverse ecology and wildlife population.

But guess what? We had both permit and key.

So with 4WD vehicle hired, 12 meals faithfully dehydrated (incl a gourmet vegetarian gluten-free pasta dinner), and backpacks crammed (but with restraint this time, as I learnt a lot on that Tasmanian bushwalk, when 15-17kgs was definitely stupid waaaaay too much), off we set.

Two intrepid, fit, adventurous women, leaving their teenage sons behind to have lots of parties fend for themselves, stepping away from the grid to do a 4-day off-track bushwalk/hike, carrying everything we needed, including a map and compass.

This is going to be fantastic! The adventure of a lifetime indeed. Until reality sinks in, slowly but surely:

  • ‘This map is hard to read without my glasses. Where did I put my glasses?’
  • ‘No G, it’s too soon for morning tea, we’ve only been walking an hour. And you are peeing a lot as it is [I blame the goddamn waist strap].
  • ‘Well, we can’t swim in that first pool, there may be crocs.’
  • ‘We can’t get across, we have to climb up.’
  • ‘We can’t get across, we have to climb down.’
  • ‘Holy shit, that’s a long way down. Do we have a rope? We need a rope. Actually, we need to be 20 years younger, and related to Indiana Jones…’
  • ‘So you’re telling me we need to cross to the other side of the river, floating our backpack contents back & forth on one of our sleeping mats, while holding aloft our boots and mobile phones?’

*Generalised sighing, sweating, deep-breathing and mumbled complaints follow

Stunning wilderness as a reward for the hard bushwalking

True wilderness #Australia #Kakadu #Nature

But that view from our campsite on the river is the reward.

And all that was just the first day; Part Three to follow.

A woman over 50 is a good bushwalker

Day One of the offtrack bushwalk was a challenge #Australia #Kakadu #bushwalking

With eternal gratitude for my tough little legs, G xO

23 Comments

    • bone&silver says

      No we didn’t, as we’d climbed up a waterfall, & crocs can’t climb, so we knew we were safe (or I wouldn’t have been there- people seriously still get taken by crocs every year!)

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  8. zlotybaby says

    Waiting for post no 3. More pictures, please!
    15-17 kg is waaaay to much, I agree. I carried 13 kg on day 1 of the Otter Trail (a really amazing 5 day hike in South Africa) and I was really unhappy about that, even though I trained hiking with a heavy backpack every weekend for two months. Every day after that was better because I was eating through what I carried. I salute you for surviving that without training!

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    • bone&silver says

      Thanks zloty- I’m still amazed at how heavy clothes are! I was hoping for my pack to weigh less than 12 (I’d done a little training with 10kg), but after the first day of complaining and fidgeting, I settled into it. And yes, eating the weight certainly helped 🙂 Post 3 is up now, and Part 4 to come with mainly pics 🙂 x

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      • zlotybaby says

        Yes, the “settling” part is something that helps. It’s almost like you’re get comfortable with how uncomfortable the backpack feels in some places 😀 I’m checking out part 3 now!

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  9. RhapsodyBoheme says

    Oh my goodness battle scars and all but the moments that remain closest to our hearts always have something a little wild about them and those are the times you will always remember. Go G.❤️

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