Slaty Hut to Rintoul Hut – 14km, 10hrs

Leaving Slaty Hut started with a massive climb, the sun was shining, not a breath of wind. A perfect day for an Alpine crossing. It was a hard slog up to top of Old Man mountain, but it was soooo worth it! The views were unreal, no photo could ever explain how it feels to be on top of a mountain

Old Man to Rintoul Hut was  rocky and exposed. It involved a lot of  scrambling, we were told is the most difficult portion of the Richmond Alpine Track…. That’s an understatement, Mt Rintoul was brutal, climbing over rock, steep rocky slopes and never ending. Many places u wouldn’t want to put a foot wrong as often a long drop down.

What goes up must go down! The descent was tricky, steep and loose rock, tough on the knees. 1.7km down to hut took for eva.

Rintoul Hut to Mid Wairoa hut was a great day, track included beech forest, plenty of river crossings, usual ups n downs. We stopped at Tarn Hut for lunch were we swam in the Tarn, warmer than the rivers, but still felt great to wash off the sweat.

We met a German couple today who are just doing a 5 day hike. They have been cycle guides all over the world, Bindi now has big plans! Mid Wairoa hut was awesome (apart from the man eating sandflies) best swim of the trail so far. We swam up a little canyon, stunning.

2 days of rain coming, so we have made a decision to exit the Richmond ranges 2 days early, I also have a chest infection which is slowing us down. If the rivers come up we will be a further day in ranges. The German couple also decided to exit, days hiking to get out to a private mountain bike park. Lucky us, a tyre truck was in carpark fixing a truck so we all managed to hitch a ride to Wakefield. Got dropped off at the pub and never left😜