A week later, Kass had somehow managed to get her leave request granted and Sirius had practically insisted that Amanda take some time off to go tramping. He’d even started packing her bags for her. Cat had left her hired manager in charge of her garage. If anyone wanted her handiwork specifically, they’d have to wait a week. Indi worked freelance as a programmer so she had no trouble shifting her schedule around. She never took on that much work anyway. She sent her daughter, along with Kass’s son, Jesse, to stay at her brother’s place for the week. Indi’s brother had a daughter called Bree, and all three kids were in the same year so they got on pretty well.
They’d agreed to meet at Indi’s at 6 am, Indi with some reluctance. She wasn’t usually out of bed until 10 am, but Amanda had convinced her that they needed to get started early. Viscadia Park, and the start of the track, were about two hours drive away.
Amanda, as usual, was the first one to arrive. Indi opened the door, still dressed in her pyjamas. She greeted Amanda with a yawn and something that sounded like an offering of coffee. Amanda accepted a cup and Indi made herself her second one as well. By the time that Kass and Cat showed up 15 minutes later at 6:05 am Indi was fully dressed and had hauled her bags to Amanda’s jeep while Amanda had been flipping through the weekend paper. 5 minutes later they were on the road.
“You guys want some coffee?” Indi asked, holding up a thermos from the back seat.
“Sure,” Kass replied. “Thanks.” Indi poured some into a travel cup and handed it to her.
Cat glanced back from the front passenger seat. “No thanks.”
Indi looked out the window. The town of Little Rock was weirdly quiet. “We should stop for car snacks.”
“We need petrol anyway,” Amanda replied. “We’ll stop in Marblewood, you can grab something then.”
“You got tunes?” Indi asked.
Amanda twisted the volume knob on the radio. Some chilled country music started playing.
Cat gave snort, reached over, and changed the station to something a little more rock.
“I thought driver selects the music?” Amanda objected.
Cat shook her head. “It’s the navigator’s job. Driver has to focus on the road.”
Amanda glanced back at her with a wink. “I’ll make sure to remember that next time I’m in your car.”
“We should have taken my car,” Indi butted in. “I can connect my phone to the radio in it. You ever think about upgrading your radio?”
“I’ve got CDs for when we run out of reception,” Amanda replied.
Indi laughed. “CDs? Nobody uses CDs anymore, Amanda. I’m so getting you a new radio for Christmas.”
Amanda gave a resigned laugh.
Meanwhile Cat had found the CD case under her seat and was flipping through it. “I guess we can always listen to some Dumpling,” she remarked, referring to a long dead rock ballad star.
“Can you change the station to 98.5?” Indi asked, requesting the local station that played most of the latest pop music.
Cat snorted. “Over my dead body.”
30 minutes later they pulled in at a petrol station in Marblewood. The sun was just coming up. Indi marvelled at the prettiness of it. She jumped out once they were stopped and went to find the bathroom while Amanda filled the jeep with petrol. Kass wandered inside to see if they had anything interesting to read. Cat grabbed a bucket and wiper and gave the windows a quick clean.
Marblewood was a pretty nice town, fancier than Little Rock, which given its seaside location and well-known port, saw large numbers of transients and ship folk. People who were used to the rough conditions of sea vessels usually didn’t care for too much fanciness. Marblewood was further inland and thanks to its beautiful rolling green hills, and large trees, it attracted those looking for a relaxed upper-class country lifestyle. There was a mixture of small farmhouses on working farms and ginormous mansions situated on expansive lifestyle blocks. The further inland you got the fancier the houses, until you hit the mountains. Then the bush took over and the land got too steep for building on.
The bathrooms were possibly the cleanest petrol station bathrooms Indi had ever seen. When she came back out into the store Kass was perusing the magazine rack, a newspaper in one hand. Indi went and bought herself another coffee, a bag of sour sugar-coated gummy candies, and some chocolate.
“You want anything?” she called over to Kass while she waited in line.
Kass shook her short strawberry blonde hair. “No thanks, I’m alright.”
They got driving again and Indi found herself torn between watching the scenery slowly reveal itself in the morning light and reading internet comment threads on her phone before they ran out of reception. The scenery won out in the end and, after 5 minutes of trying to do both, she closed her phone and just watched the passing landscape. It was mostly trees and farmland at the moment. A house here and there. The people in them must be waking up soon, or maybe some of them were sleeping in. She envied them a little, all snug in their duvet cocoons. Part of her took pleasure in being up so early too though. She was seeing a part of the world that would be changed by the time they woke up. Being up so early, seeing the sun rise and the grass glisten, was almost like being privy to a special secret.
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She opened the gummy candies and passed the bag around the car. Cat took the bag then held it out for Amanda without taking any herself. Amanda grabbed a small handful. Cat then passed it back to Kass, still without taking any. Kass took two gummies and passed the bag to Indi who rifled through so she could find one of each colour. She decided the purple ones were the best.
They turned south-west, just before they hit the mountain range, and drove parallel to it. They continued straight for almost 40 minutes without much of a change in scenery before turning off down a side road. The roads slowly got smaller and rougher until eventually there was nothing but dirt beneath the tires. Cat had a paper topographical map out which showed them the roads that led to the track start and the track itself. After a further 30 minutes of winding through the bush, over bumps and through ruts they pulled up in a small park next to a sign reading ‘Poison Pass.’
They jumped out and started pulling the packs out of the back.
“Jackos Indi! How much stuff are you bringing?!” exclaimed Cat at as she pulled Indi’s bags out of the jeep and handed them to her. “What did you even pack in those? Rocks?” She had pulled not one but two packs out of the back of the jeep, a regular 40 litre pack and a smaller 16 litre day pack.
“How are you planning to carry both of those?” Amanda asked. She had managed to miss noticing the size of them when Indi had thrown them into the back of the jeep earlier, or even that there were two.
“I was going to carry one on the front,” Indi replied.
Cat snorted.
Amanda shook her head. “No. Come here. Give me your pack. We’ll trim your stuff down a little. Take out the unnecessaries.”
Indi sighed and handed Amanda the small pack.
“Both of them,” Amanda replied, taking the small pack from her and emptying its contents into the boot of the jeep. “You don’t want to hike with two packs, you won’t be able to see your feet and you’ll end up walking into a hole.”
Indi undid the top of her pack and handed it to Amanda who started tipping everything out on to the ground. She could barely lift the thing with both hands. Stuff rolled everywhere.
Amanda started to help Indi sort through her things while Kass and Cat watched. The usually stoic Cat had her lips pushed together as if she was struggling not to burst into hysterics.
“Okay, for starters you don’t need that many tops,” Amanda told Indi.
“But I have one for each day plus a spare,” Indi protested.
“Pick two or three that you like and re-wear them. Same goes for the shorts, you don’t need more than two. Well one really but two’s fine.”
“Deodorant is a non-essential too.”
“What?! I am not leaving deodorant behind!”
Off to the side Cat snorted.
They shifted through Indi’s bag quite quickly and soon managed to get it down to one pack of semi-reasonable weight. They put the rest of Indi’s things into the back of the jeep.
While they were doing that Cat picked up Amanda and Kass’ packs to see who’s was the heaviest.
“I think Kass’ entire pack weighs less than your day pack did Indi,” Cat remarked.
Amanda reached over and picked it up so she could see for herself. “Shit! You got everything you need?”
Kass laughed and nodded, “Very expensive lightweight gear. I used to do a lot of hiking in the mountains.”
“Shit!” Amanda remarked, impressed by how lightweight it was. “How much does yours weigh?” she asked Cat as she reached for her pack.
“Less than yours but you’ve got the tent and cooker and a bit more of the food I think,” Cat replied. “You want me to take some?”
Amanda shook her head. “Nah, they’re not that different. If you want extra weight you could take Indi’s tent.”
“Hah!” Cat laughed. “Kass’ pack’s lighter and she’s actually sleeping in Indi’s tent.” She paused then said, “Nah I can take it.” Cat started taking the tent off Indi’s pack and strapping it on to her own. “You need a smaller tent, Indi.”
“I would have bought mine,” Kass said, “but it’s one-person tent, and barely that to be honest. I can carry it some of the way if you want.”
Cat nodded. “We can swap it around.”
“Shall we get moving?” Amanda said as she reached to shut the boot.
Kass swung her pack on to her back with ease. Indi almost fell over trying to pick hers up until Cat helped her out. It might be down to a reasonable weight but it was still the heaviest. Amanda hadn’t been able to talk her out of all of her things. Indi considered it fine though; after all it was much lighter than before.
“You’ve got the rope, right?” Amanda asked Cat. Cat nodded.
“What’s the rope for?” Indi asked pushing her glasses further back on her nose.
“Just in case,” Amanda replied “Rope can be useful for lots of things. It’s just a 25 m static one”. She glanced at the others briefly before adding casually, “and there’s supposed to be some caves near the last campsite, maybe we could explore them.”
“Onward!” Cat grinned as she walked towards the start of the track. Kass fell in behind her. Then Indi. Amanda took up the final position.
“How far have we gone?” Indi asked after about 30 minutes. She wasn’t used to having a pack on her back and her shoulders were starting to get sore. Cat and Kass were up ahead somewhere, not too far away. They walked fast, so every now and again they’d stop and wait for Indi and Amanda to catch up. Indi wanted to stop for a rest but she didn’t want to slow the team down. Not yet anyway.
“We can stop for a rest if you want?” Amanda said. “We’ve got plenty of time.”
“Okay, maybe just a short one,” Indi said throwing her bag down then collapsing on top of it.
Amanda set her bag down next to Indi’s and pulled out her water bottle to have a drink.
Indi fumbled around for a chocolate coated musli bar to snack on.
Five minutes later they were on their feet again. They found Cat and Kass further down the track playing a quick game of cards.
“Having fun?” Amanda asked with a grin.
“What took you guys so long?” Cat teased.
“We stopped for a break.”
“Hit me,” Kass said, referring to the card game. Cat gave her another card.
“Bust.” Cat laughed. She tidied up the cards.
Indi took this moment to fish out some chocolate. She passed the block around. Everyone accepted it happily.
They continued on through more shrubbery. Eventually the trees got larger and the undergrowth became slightly less overgrown. The ground inclined gently. They had about 800 m to climb today, so it was going to be their longest day. They had estimated their arrival at the campsite would be sometime around 2 pm. Amanda said it was better to get up early and get to the campsite early rather than get up late and arrive late. Indi wasn’t sure she agreed. It was a soft incline at the moment. Indi barely noticed it but it would get steeper later. And the second day was supposed to be even steeper, although not as far. Initially the track followed the river upstream. They had to take the long way around the cliffs. It was possible to go straight over them with climbing gear, which would save a day of walking but it was easier to walk around and the track offered some nice scenic views. It was turning into a pretty day and Indi was thankful for the shade. She could hear birds singing throughout the forest. She just focused on putting one foot in front of the other and after a while she forgot about the hard work of hiking and just became immersed in the nature all around her.
They stopped regularly for breaks or for Indi to take some photos. It was around 11:30 am when they stopped for lunch. Kass and Cat were already eating when Amanda and Indi showed up. Cat had a sharp knife out and was cutting a roll of salami into strips to have with crackers and cheese. Kass was sitting on the ground next to her, chowing down on a sandwich.
“You want some salami?” Cat asked as Indi and Amanda sat down.
“Sure,” Amanda replied.
Kass handed them a bag of rolls so they could make their own sandwiches. They all ate in silence and admired the view from the rocky outcrop on which they perched. A green sea of trees expanded out as far as they could see.