Cirque 2 Sea Day 5 : 05-08-2016

Charles was delighted to discover his fork frozen hard to the cooking pot this morning. Jarra was less happy when he dropped his pot into the river, but pleased when Alastair allowed him to fish it out with his sampling net. The rhythm of packing up camp continued until 10am when it was time to part ways. The students, Alastair and Kate walked south to the bus and I began the trek north to reach DuCane Gap, part of the cirque we're aiming to reach. It was a great start to the expedition with the team and I'll miss them.

Walking past the same cairn we noted a few days ago I crossed a swollen creek and began the solo part of this expedition. With no wind and no chattering teenagers it was eerily quiet. A wombat, dashing for freedom through the snow, broke the spell. There are no tracks here so navigating carefully is especially important. The main thing I'm trying to do is avoid thick scrub and steep hillsides. Especially south facing hills as the snow is much thicker and harder to get through on them. Can you guess why? I'd forgotten how hard slushy snow walking can be as I plunged knee deep into uneven ground step after step. A fleeting thought to turn back crossed my mind but conditions improved and I made good progress by the day's end.

About 8km and I'm camped between two partly frozen lakes northwest of Traveller's Rest Lake. At one point when I stopped to check my location with map and GPS I noticed some burrowing crayfish holes. I'm certain of it Alastair and their grid coordinates  are UTM/WGS84 0438189, 5345543. A little discovery for Friday. In the tent at 5.30pm now and it's already 0 degrees outside. Brrr.

T-shirt winner: TRLL0404

Royal Life Saving Society winner: Penguin Paws13

Cirque 2 Sea is a partnership project between the Bookend Trust, the Derwent Estuary Program and our supporters.