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I thought you said we're over the worst.It's about now the verse from Rex Fairburn's poem "Walking On My Feet" starts repeating itself in my head like a mantra:" Put one in front, then put the other..." We start to climb.
The basic vegetation is manuka,
but as we climb a little the side of the path begins to sprout a wealth of ferns and mosses
A layby!
I'm having trouble with sweat. My hat has absorbed as much as it's going to and I need to stop every now and again. I notice that if I get sweat lensed onto my glasses, it plays old Harry with my sense of depth when I'm picking my way along an uneven path.
We can't hang around here all day though, so I grab some jerky and another drink and off we go again. I'll just get out of range of that camera.
Every now and again, in this wilderness movie we get a glimpse of the reality that works mostly behind the scene to preserve the illusion that we are in fact walking in the steps of the pioneers. We are, but in considerably more comfort and ease than Mackay - or Bilbo - experienced, scrambling around steep hillsides, fording rivers and so forth, without modern pack design to lighten his load and without MRE's to sustain him. No, we won't go there.
MRE's are American Army issue freeze dried meals, translated by enlisted men as "Meals Refused by Ethiopians."
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