Slightly wet boots

The next phase required us to climb into forests again then descend into a gorge and follow a steam for several miles until it merged with another stream. The stream was safe and slow moving and we carefully hopped from one rock to another to keep our boots dry. At times the boots got a little bit wet but all that wax that I had applied was doing a great job and for about ½ a mile we deluded ourselves that this was how it was going to continue.

The stream got deeper and the water seeped into the boots, by the time we were wading in water up to our thighs the wax wasn't really helping much! Once the boots were as wet as they could be it was strangely liberating as you just walked on with out the silly hopping about over rocks!

We then reached the point where the two streams merged and the clear blue waters were perfectly calm but somewhat deeper. Ummm time for lunch I decided. The only option was to swim across with the backpacks. We checked the map and GPS to make sure that we were on route and we were. So we started to prepare double bagging all electrical and vital equipment, memorising the next section of the route to that we could get out just in case we lost the packs. Something didn't feel quite right so we rechecked the map and GPS then we remembered the trip notes.

We then discovered that is we scrambled over some rocks for 30 meters the stream could be crossed in water only up to our calf’s. It seemed like the best option!