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Gouland Downs HutWe take a little time to play with topo maps and identify this and that around us. With the lingering taste of banana and chocolate and raisins still with us, we get our packs back on and head down the path to the boot pole. I have not been able to find out how this tradition started, but it's a little like a tramping boot graveyard. It boasts high-heeled shoes, baby shoes, and roller blades, along with a thoroughly munted collection of old leather. We did hear of a woman quite recently whose shoes packed it in near here, who was able to find a pair on the pole in better condition, so made the swap.
We are now more or less surrounded by tussock, about five to six feet high, on both sides of the path. We continue to descend.
The Downs are effectively a large sedimentary plain between mountain ranges, and this has in turn been carved into by streams, producing a landscape of flat-topped plain and deep V streams and rivers.
The track has changed yet again.
There are still small visual and tactile treasures to be had on every bank.
One of DOC's projects on the Downs is the elimination of predators such as stoats. There are dozens of these boxes. We meet Ranger Tracey coming the other way. I am standing off the path a bit, probably walking all over some rare moss or lichen, to get this picture, and Miranda elbows me in the ribs just as Tracey arrives. Haven't I read the environmental code?
We are now walking beside Cave Brook (not Cave Creek, if any of our parents is reading this) and the contrast between the white limestone outcrops and the clear tannin-stained water is startling.
Just along the way we reach a bridge, and down under it is Carol, looking as if she's about to go for a swim. One of the rechargeable batteries from her camera has fallen down the bank as she changed them. The pool is deep and clear, but no sign of the battery. The path changes yet again.
We climb the last small rise from the bridge to reach Gouland Downs Hut for lunch. You can just make out a corner of the roof. A much easier time of it today, at any rate.
Lunchtime.
We have dropped considerably from Perry Saddle. I have been looking at that DOC logo. A symbolic picnic table on a large rock??
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