..Anything is possible. My battle cry this morning before setting off.
Pushed the pace, 6 hours straight until I had lunch. Hiking in the forest to begin with I crossed the river 9 times to continue a path and when that got too thick and I became so slow and at points unable to move downstream I took to wading down the river which was knee to waist high. Two walking sticks in hand for balance I just pushed on down the river.
Eventually, I couldn't move on either riverbank and the water was getting too deep in places to walk so I blew up the Packraft and threw my bags in it and dragged it down the river and whenever it got too deep I jumped in, well one foot, hanging the other over the side, leaving my boots on for the walk.
Got past where Orange Creek joined with the Gordon River and very close to where the Gell River meets but as the day ran into early evening and the sunlight disappeared so did any heat source and my body gradually become colder and colder due to spending time hiking down the river in the icy river waters. Forcing me to stop and regain heat into my body, I stripped off at my camping spot and dried off then moved my body doing push ups and squats to create heat into my muscles thus heating my body before putting clothes on and making dinner and allowing my mind to calm, although after such a long day being able to switch off and sleep is difficult and often leads to a broken nights sleep which I just get used to.
Lots of gear broke today:
Trousers
Gaiters
Walking pole
But I didn't, I was in the zone, just pushing from dawn to dusk.
Thanks for following my journey through Tasmania - Taz