By the end, leeches clung to most body parts, we’d shared a hut with rodents, and traversed many muddied steps.
It’s clear early on that we may have chosen the wrong trek. Our knees wobble just going from the minibus to the start of the track under the weight of our 10-kilogram packs. And a couple of hours later, as we haul ourselves over the final boulder to arrive at Marions Lookout, we barely notice the stunning vista below. With lungs burning we wonder, ‘Whose ridiculous idea was this anyway?’
It’s a difficult choice, but there’s a guide saying that goes something like, ‘With some walkers, if we didn’t turn them around, god might have’. But time – and daylight – is ticking on. As we set off after lunch, minus one group member and a guide, a helicopter lands on the rocky outcrop to collect an injured trekker. It’s a surreal reminder that from here on, the only way on or off the Overland is on foot or by chopper.
Inside, I lie down on a window seat, guzzling water and ibuprofen, while a search party is raised to find our other guide. She’s still on the track, having set out in the dark along the same route we’d covered. There’s willowy Skye in her early 50s, funny and warm, who’s with her dad David, a farmer with the love of a yarn and a poem. Then there’s Philip, an Irish-born Sydney executive who one night performs an unexpected rendition ofA basic kitchen hut along the Overland Track – sleeping accommodation is more salubrious.An experienced trekker, he never complains about being held up by our slow pace.
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