After 'Umm-ing and Ahh-ing' about what to do for the Easter long weekend, we settled on doing K2K. Lucy, Laura and I hadn't done it before, and Nat hadn't done it in years - so everyone was happy. The logistics were going to work out smoothly; catch the train the Nat's Mum's place, and then get a lift out to Kanagra on Friday morning to start the hike.
On Thursday evening, Laura and I made our way to central station. We planned to rendezvous with Nat up in the mountains, but as fortunate had it, Nat run into us as she was getting on the train. Lucy had planned to catch the early train the next morning.
After an uneventful train ride, we walked through the dark up to Nat's Mum's place. We entered the park and THUD!!.....The most intense pain shot up through my leg. I didn't know what had happened, but I was in agony, and I nearly toppled to the ground under the full weight of my pack. As we had entered the park, there was a series of wooden bollards - I thought that I was walking between two, but instead I had walked straight into one. It struck me right in the middle of the thigh muscle - in the dead leg zone! It would go on the ache for the remainder of the hike. After an eventful walk from the train station, we got to Nat's Mum's place, had a night cap, and went to bed.
The next morning we met up with Lucy and headed out to Kanagra with Nat's Mum. When we got there, we were met by a group of 20+ hikers from the 'Meetup' website, who were planning to hike out to Mt Cloudmaker and back as an over night hike. Unfortunately, they managed to start a little earlier than us (partly due to my stiff right leg), and we were tasked with over taking them at some point during the day. After a quick jaunt down to the lookout, we joined the trail proper and set off into the wilderness.
The first few hours passed without much fan-fair, we took a few photos on top of the walls as we made our way along the ridge. Before long it was lunch time and we had just managed to overtake the 'Meetup' group (who got the good lunch spot). As usually happens though, they managed to leap frog us again while were were eating, but we caught them quick enough once we set off again.
We started chatting with one of the men in the 'Meetup' group, who was much fitter and a bit more experienced than the rest. He knew the club, and remembered meeting Tilly, Sam, Bultitude and the rest at one of the snow trips (at Seamans Hut, I think). We left our friend behind, and started the steep decent down into Gabes Gap. When we got to the bottom of the saddle, we met a small group (also doing K2K) who were strapping up some blisters, and we warned them there was a large group coming up behind us. One of the women in the group took offence to the size of the 'Meetup' group, and went off on a massive rant about how rude and irresponsible they were - seriously, she was irate, and quite boisterous.
Our friend and a few others from the 'Meetup' group were coming down the hill behind us, and we didn't want to hang around for the fireworks, so we started up the hill towards Mt High and Mighty. Part way up the hill, we heard the irate women launch into a spray at our Meetup friend, and we didn't look back. After 15 minutes of hill climbing, our friend caught up to us, eager to get away. We headed around Rip, over Rack, around Roar and over Rumble, before reaching Mt Cloudmaker. On Cloudmaker we signed the log book, and 'checked-in' on Facebook (we had reception up there!) before heading down the hill to the campsite at Dex Creek with our 'Meetup' friend.
We managed to capitalize on a few levels spots close to the water at the cozy Dex Creek campsite. After a couple of hours, some of the 'Meetup' group started to trickle in, one of whom seemed to be the partner of our friend - and she was not happy about being left behind all day!
After dinner we settled into our tent for the evening, only to find the outside of the tent mesh crawling with leeches!...Perhaps crawling is the wrong word. I defiantly saw two leeches, and possibly a third, but that was enough to make me paranoid for the rest of the night. I kept waking up, swatting and brushing at anything that felt like it was crawling in my sleeping bag all night - it was all in my head though.
A quick breakfast the next morning and we were on the trail, after saying goodbye to our 'Meetup' friend. We twisted and turned along the ridge until we got the top of Mt Strongleg. We started the long and steep decent down toward the Cox's River, aiming for Kanangra Gorge on the left to fill up water. We had lunch next to Kanangra creek, where a group of two warned us that water was scarce at our next campsite - Mobbs Swamp. We resolved to fill every vessel we had (including a 6L water bladder - previously empty) to get us through the afternoon and next morning. After lunch we bashed our way around to the Cox's River crossing where we met up with the small group with the irate women. We passed on the warning of water scarcity and headed on up Yellow Dog Ridge. After several hours of climbing and traversing the ridge we made it to Mobbs Swamp, just before night fall.
We were glad we carried the extra water up the hill (15L between us), the water at Mobbs Swamp was truly fowl. We treated it and used it for cooking (after using a buff to filter out the mosquito larva), and kept some as 'emergency' for the next day. We had a good chat with a group from Wollongong over dinner and went to bed for a leech-free slumber.
We made anouther quick start the next morning and before we knew it, we had it to the bottom of Tarro's Ladder. Part of me had been dreading the ladder before we got to it, not knowing how high or how exposed it would be. Once I got a look at it, I felt fine, and the climb out was pretty straight forward (made even easier with my long reach). We made it to the top and met the fire trail on Narrow Neck. We took in the view and set off toward Katoomba.
Part way along the fire trail, at a spot with a nice view over the Megalong Valley, I let Lucy and Nat get in front of us, while Laura was fiddling with something on her pack. I took the secluded opportunity to pop out a ring I had made, and ask Laura to marry me - something I had been planning to do for weeks. Of course she said yes, making the next 10km of fire trail walking the easiest I have ever done - I was floating! We giggled and smiled as we caught up to Lucy and Nat, deciding not to tell them straight away, wanting to wait and tell our families first (sorry guys).
Eventually we got to the locked gate and the group from Wollongong offered us a ride into town, which we graciously took. We had a bite to eat before jumping on the train back home. Funnily enough, Lucy, who had already agreed to be a brides maid for anouther friends wedding, wanted to talk about how expensive and over the top weddings are these days. Laura and I exchanged quick glances and silent jokes throughout her rant.
I also spent the train ride exchanging quick glances with guy next to me, although I think they more related to how bad I must of smelled.
