Lumpy Mess!

Sälka - Tjäkta

Once again.. wet, windy and cold but we got up a little later than usual.. I just really didn't want to get up at all after the crappy crappy sleep last night. As it turned out not only did we get the worst nights sleep but it was also going to be the worst and hardest day where I thought I was going to die! Nemo was all about the cuddles this morning..
Cooking again.. all I seemed to do was walk and cook! It was just like being at home!
Isn't that the most adorable lippy you have ever seen?
Those lips aren't too bad either huh? hahaha
Gotta do some stretches....
MMmm fresh water.. delightful!
Can you believe that we walked over them rocks?
The underpants rock! My favourite rock of the whole trip!
O you know you want hair just like this!!
The wind was so very bad, but it also had the bonus of no mozzies.. but it was like ice, however once we started walking you kinda forget about it.. a bit. The thing that killed the most was not the insane amount of rocks but the freaken mountain we had to climb up. Seriously we had to go up to 1150 metres up! In this photo we have just finished the most basic part of it and I thought it was bad enough..
and that was even after walking across this...By the time we got to the top we were well stuffed and thought that the worst was over.. we headed into the wind shelter for a quick break, there were a couple of old dudes in there cooking so it was toasty as.. just what was needed
They also told us how just 4 days prior there had been a snow storm which is why there was so much snow and extra water. Typical huh?
So now not only did we have to contend with ups and downs and rocks, wind and just uncoolness but there were also areas of snow that we had to cross and it was unknown whether or not it was actually going to hold. Twice the snow tried to eat me and it managed to swollow my whole leg and then there was the time where we had to walk through slush that was knee deep.. you couldn't go around it so you just had to bite it and go through.. ones feet got rather cold and numb and actually made it a little less painful to rush over it.. it was the fastest we had ever moved over the whole hike.. and we took no breaks until it was over.. just powered on! It sure is amazing what one can do when one is a little freaked out. Over most of the snow I tried to do a jog to get over it as quick as possible.. so very wrong on such tired legs, twisted ankle and blisters.. but we made it and it was like heaven when we got to camp, we were welcomed by the best lady.. she rocked and she had even been to NZ to hike as well as telling me that I am about the 5th kiwi to pass through this year.. two kiwis being just a day ahead of me.. ace.

Today was so freaken hard, it took more than 8 hours to go only 12km.. whereas yesterday was so freaken easy that the end of 12km kinda snuck up upon us.. the original plan was to do the two in one day, luckily we were a day ahead of ourselves so we opted to just take each part a day at a time.. and boy o boy am I thankful for that!
Look at them eyes!
We had to cross several ice water streams, one of which being rather large and they did not supply a bridge for, however not long after the large stream they had a small stream.. so small that you could just step over it.. but for that one they had supplied a single plank of wood to help you.. seriously wtf?

Nemo was a little worse for wear today, his pads were starting to wear and I think all the rocks, snow and mountain is really taking its toll on him, Emma even had to break out her She-Ra routine and carry him over some parts of it. Nemo got a nice warm bowl of couscous and vegesoup along with some of his kibble for dinner and he was so knackered that he didn't even get up to eat, but I think the warm food did him a world of good and sure as heck made him poo the next day! lol

We had Chili Con Carne & Indian Bread for dinner which was actually quite rubbish but when you are hungry and don't have much else to eat, you eat it or starve, and I also hate being wasteful.
We set up camp on the lumpiest area around.. actually it was the best we could find in the lumpy field! [watch video] Of course we had another horrible nights sleep and it was cold too, lumpy and freezing is not a good combination at all.

Oh and all the way we had had sludge.. and it smells like fart. Yuck!