Oh hellllo lakes!

So, the eventual plan (after much dithering when hearing the abisman forcast) was to get the bus to St Arnaud and then do a 4 day trek around the lakes. We set off from the the Doc office (Deparment of Conservation - more on them later) at around 12 and headed off, bags packed and insect spray bought.

Day 1. St Arnaud to Coldwater Hut The first day was very gentle, as we were essentailly just walking the edge of the lake to the other side, via a small waterfall. The lake was very pleasant, maybe 5 times the size of Siblyback(?). Coldwater hut was beautiful, set just back from the lake it looked back to St Arnaud and had a very pictuereqsue jetty to sit on.

Unfortunately it was also full of sand flies. These are worse than mosquitos, much much worse.

The hut slept about 10, and we join a jolly group of four Americans on a fishing trip, a German triathlete, a Canadian girl and a French girl who were all tramping alone. A very jolly evening followed, as the americans (all natural science professors) had caught two big fish and so there was enough for everyone! The fish was wrapped and cooked in the fireplace, which was then built up to ward off the sandflies for the rest of the night.

Day 2. Coldwater Hut to Angelus Hut We woke to rain, and lots of it, so we took a very relaxed appraoch to the day and only set off at 11. The route was about 4 hours or so, increasingly uphill. And boy was it steep at the end!

The scenery was amazing as we slowly rose up through the trees and past the bushline. Slowly the clouds lifted and we got to see the hills around us, passing through glades and crossing many streams on our gradual way upwards.

Due to a severe lack of sleep (the guy in the bunk next to me snored like an ACTUAL train) and a lack of a decent breakfast I really struggled towards the end. It was pretty much all I could do to just place one foot in front of the other. That hill never seemed to bloody end and it only got steeper. Luckily, I reached my end point roughly 10 mins before we got to the top, so with the help of a sit down and talking to with some ginger biscuits it wasn’t long before we got to the top, which was camp for the night!