Day 16. Russell Forest

I had a boat ride arranged to take me across the bays to Russell forest for 10am, which gave me a good amount of time to shower and make a nice big breakfast for myself before I entered my next section.

The boat ride was short, nice, and expensive but soon enough I was on my way to Russell forest track start. I knew this track was mainly spent following a stream for 5km, so I accepted the fact that I was going to have wet boots and socks. The track was very hard to read. There were no trail markers explaining which way to go. My trail notes explained to walk up stream for 5km but my gps trail told me otherwise. After about a couple kilometers of walking up steam I came to a track post that was laying on the ground. There was a faint trail leading into the trees that my gps agreed with so I started to follow it's path. It took me up, up, up, and eventually I had lost the track. My gps had said I was in the right place but my trail notes specifically said to walk upstream for 5km. I soon found myself on no track, stuck in vines, struggling to get anywhere. Eventually I did make it back to the stream but I was not happy. I felt like a dog chasing it's own tail. The stream was slow going with sections well past my knees. I splashed my way 5km to the finish where I found a small shelter. When I eventually reached the shelter there were 7 boars there that stopped digging their faces in the mud and watched my every move. I wasnt sure if I was the predator or the prey, so I continued to walk and they picked themselves as prey. The shelter had no room for a tent, but it did provide shelter for cooking. The grounds surrounding the shelter had tossed up mud everywhere from the pigs, giving me limited options to pitch. I found a spot but it wasn't very even.

It was an easy day made hard. I spent the rest of the evening eating food and reading my book. The Way Of Kings.