The long walk.

Saturday saw myself and Spicy head up to Kinglake National Park to attempt the Mount Everard Circuit walk. There are differing records as to the length of the circuit, varying from 18.8km to 19.6km to 22km, so I am not sure exactly how far we walked. Assuming the maps along the trail are accurate then 22km should be the total length with a recommended completion time of between 6-7hrs.

The main trail and my pack

Unfortunately for Spicy, he failed to ask me how far we were walking when he agreed to come on this trek and the poor sod had not slept much before hand.

Lunch break

So upon our arrival at 11:30 we set off from the car park and took the trek along a small trail through the lush green forest along the Shelley Harris Track, which I should have taken a photo of!

Unfortunately when we reached the Mount Jerusalem track, which is the start of the main circuit trail, we did not pay attention to the arrows indicating the recommended direction we take around the track. So we started off going the opposite way and found out the hard way why the other direction was recommended. In fact when we reached the peak of Mount Everard, we had thought we were further along the trail than we were. When we realised where we were, the mountain did indeed live up to it’s previous name Mount Misery.

Mt Misery

Anyway, we drank some cement and hardened up and continued on our way and finally made it back to the car just under 5 and a half hours.

Spent and ready to go home

If we had traveled in the right direction our trip would have been much easier and quicker! So, the next time we head out on a trail we’ll know to pay more attention.

Oh and here is a tree that stood out a little amongst the gums, it amused me.

The Odd Tree

That wasn’t the end of my trekking for the weekend however, because I turned up to the 1k steps on Sunday morning too! I did however leave my backpack with the weights at home. If I had gone with my pack I think I would have suffered terribly at boxing tonight. Hmm, maybe I will just be a slob the rest of this week… mmm… hamburgers…