18th September

Day 40 - Walpole to Frankland River Campsite

For the third night in a row I had insomnia. I believe I had become accustomed to the hard bedding and thermo-rest that I use in the huts so that in a nice comfortable bed offered at the YHA in Walpole I just could not sleep. In fact I only slept an hour but that didn't seem to bother me as I restocked with groceries to get me to Denmark had breakfast at a local cafe and kept going.

Yesterday's 40 km march in wet feet had left me with blisters. I had to bandage the entire ball of each foot, the heel and most toes. Today the rain was incessant from the Coalmine Beach Caravan Park until I had almost reached the Franklin River. Once again the Tingle forests made a big impression with one hollow trunk  at the Giant Tingle Tree tourist site wide enough to drive through. 

I arrived at Franklin at 1 pm after leaving Walpole at 9:20 am. At Franklin I caught up with Kevin who was joined by a friend: Kieran. Three canoeists were stopped for lunch and were soon on their way. In the afternoon two more walkers who were just here for an overnight walk dropped in. Tonight marked the busiest or most crowded hut situation so far with 5 people including myself. 

The newcomers were Rod and Christine from Canberra.  The river here was very pretty and due to the rain in the night I think the resident possum stayed away. This possum was notorious apparently for getting into people's food even ripping packs apart to do so.

Day 41 - Frankland to Rame Head

Franklin River - looking upstream from Sappers Bridge