Day 5. Rees – Dart Circuit
Another very long, hot day – 67km (not the 61k as we had thought) and about 13 1/2 hours.
Mals thoughts on the day:
Awesomly beautiful and incredibly brutal. The best trail run I think I’ve ever done! Great running, great scenery, great spirit of the group.
It was a cool start with low cloud and mist – a very stiring beginning to the the day with mountain peaks bathed in sunshine high above. Fabulous running up toward the Dart Hut with a new view around every corner – lots of whoops and hollers. Reached Dart Hut on schedule – first time I can remember getting to where we said we would in the time we had specified. Saw the first kea of the week coming up to the Rees saddle and took a break on top for a snowball fight. Unfortunately the trek back down the Dart river turned out to be much longer than I’d imagined so once again we kept our fabulous support crew waiting. Luckily they chose to hang around despite the army of sand flies!
The last 4 hours were desperate stuff. I was over tired…..dog tired……I just wanted to sit down and cry. But what a great team I had around me. Dave Bolger, a mountaineer only back in his running shoes for 10 weeks, grabbed my pack and carried it for the last few hours.
At the end Aaron Carter was awarded the pink pants for his stand out performance on the day – having worn out all his shoes in training he grabbed his least worn for today’s big effort. Sadly they blew out early on and one shoe fell to pieces just before the Dart Hut…..but nothing a bit of Jess’ strapping tape couldn’t fix (check out the photos).
I need sleep now so that’s it for today. Tomorrow is another day and I’m sure I will be raring to go in the morning to take on the Greenstone-Mavora walkway.
Cheers,
Mal.
Click thumbnails for larger images.
