Day 18: 28 November 2019
It is 12 months since we did a reconnaissance trip through the Florentine valley scouting our proposed X-Tas route. That was before major bushfires raged in this area over the summer. We are yet to see the full devastation that they wrought but got a glimpse of the impact today. We had assumed – an unhelpful attitude at the best of times – that nothing else much would have changed.
Last night we left Sheffield earlier than expected, also assuming that we had packed everything we needed. In our haste to get away we left without a final check (surely we would not leave anything too serious…). The drive was relaxed and smooth and we arrived at Brake Away Cottage, Maydena, soon after 7:30 pm feeling quite chuffed with the excellent accommodation.
We are based in Maydena for 5 nights and our plan for Thursday and Friday was to walk half the Florentine Road each day. At just under 40 km in total, we expected a fairly gentle 19 km walk along forestry tracks each day apart from the steep climb up from the Florentine in the first hour. However, 8 km short of the Florentine River we came unexpectedly across a Road Closed sign. It looked rather inconsequential but a couple of twists in the road later was a very definite end to our drive. We realised that we would have to walk to the Florentine and back again from that point. At least the extra journey was all downhill. We grabbed our day packs and walking sticks and soon discovered the cause. This is not flood damage – the entire bridge and road has been dug up and destroyed to the point of overkill. We think of the residents of Wayatinah hoping that the bridge over the Florentine will soon be repaired. Not sure if they have any idea of the damage further south. We soon met evidence of log trucks on the other side so figure there must be some connecting logging tracks over the hills but the Florentine Forest Drive is clearly at an abrupt end at about 45 km from Maydena.
After scrambling down and up over the stream we were soon back on track and found that our downhill walk of just under 7 km had taken 75 minutes. Not too bad. A good warm up really. Tim activated our X-Tas trip tracker and we began the uphill section in silence.
We walked well, enjoyed birdsong, a good pace overall, and appreciated the red tips of new growth on myrtle, gums and bottlebrushes. I came across a sleeping young tiger snake coiled up on the side of the track at lunchtime, a beautiful sight. It didn’t show any sign that it had seen me but when I returned with my camera to take a photo it had vanished.
Tim led in the first car on the way back and was able to follow a wedge-tailed eagle as it flew just ahead of him down the road after interrupting it from roadkill.
Refreshed now, enjoying percolated coffee and a bath while the barbeque cooks our dinner and meat for lunches, we are getting ready for day two on the Florentine – getting fitter and stronger – but also rather spoilt by returning to air-bnb comfort at the end of each day.