After a drink of water and some of last night's chilli rice (I won't be making that again!) I saddled up Nugget and rode him up to the hill. I figured if I could ride him up what I'd done already, Sarah would have no trouble with the packs tomorrow. He's a big hearted horse, and gave it everything, but vines were tripping him up and he lost footing a few times- nearly killing me by falling on me at one stage! I got off and led him the rest of the way - quite an exercise. Again, he gave it everything, and we just made it - he was quite scared - wide-eyed and literally foaming with sweat - so was I!
We made it back safely and I put him back with Sarah after a long and well earned drink. Once again I tackled the hill and finally made it to the top - blow me down there was a track after all - I followed it back but it petered out about halfway. Anyway, after all that, I'm sure we'll be up there within a couple of hours tomorrow morning - although I suspect I might end up making several trips to carry the packs up myself. I'm going to have to take them up separately anyway - it was hard enough leading and reassuring Nugget - as well as staying away from his thrashing hooves. It looks like rain tonight so everything is waterproofed and I'm in my bivi bag... about to fall asleep to the soothing sounds of Enya.
Orsova Creek
Monday 27th June
Once again - only about 1 km from where I was last time I sat down to write - but it feels like a very long way! I was awake before dawn again, still feeling tired but knowing what had to be done I forced myself to start packing. I called the horses over for a lick of molasses, tied them to fence posts and started to saddle up - but strangely, the sky wasn't getting any lighter and the birds had stopped calling. Was I dreaming? I rummaged around and found my watch.... 1 am!!! The rain clouds were clearing and had exposed a very bright moon (waning gibbous) -tricking even the birds, so I didn't feel so much of a fool - I apologised to Nugget and Sarah and we all went back to sleep!
I didn't need to check my watch next time I woke up - my dead arm told me I'd been on it for a few hours at least, and the kookaburras had started again. I gave Nugget and Sarah the rest of the molasses, hoping the extra energy would help them up that dreadful hill. I'm sure I was having nightmares about it last night, but I'm determined we'll make it... the power of positive thought! I tied Sarah at the bottom, knowing her dedication to Nugget made me sure she'd put in one hundred percent to get up to him; besides, he'd been partway before. Nugget struggled up as before, slightly less frazzled than yesterday, but still very sweaty and steam engining from the effort.
I was having real trouble scrambling out from under his hooves as he caught up to me with each forward movement. Half the time he was waiting for me to catch my breath! We made it up to the threequarter way point and bashed through to the existing track, where I tied him and went back (slowly) for Sarah. She put in a huge effort, bouncing the packs up to the top -although she still has no concept of her new dimensions, catching the packs on many trees on the way up. It took quite a long time, both of us needed long rests to catch our breath... she worries me sometimes when her breathing won't slow down for several minutes, and sweat literally drips off her. I think I'm just being overly anxious though, since she always refuses to do any more when she's really had enough, and does seem to fully recover before moving on.
As for me, It was beginning to dawn on me how little I'd eaten in the last two days - just one batch of that disgusting chilli rice. I was really praying her lopsided packs weren't going to fall off because it'd take me all day to carry them up in this state. But we made it up, Nugget whinnying in delight... It's very comforting to know how much these two need each other - I usually only hobble one of them these days, knowing they won't leave each other for long.
So here we are on an unexpected creek (we weren't counting on any water for another 1 0 kilometres... what a brilliant excuse to stop, unsaddle, pick off the leeches and burrs (I still haven't finished Nugget's thick tail and mane) and cook up a feast of rice and vege soup. A bit later (it must be around midday now) we�ll press on to the next creek - leaving only about 20 kms to Mossman for tomorrow. For now, though, the three of us are in zombie mode, watching the brilliant cobalt butterflies performing stunts above us.
