by nq111 » Tue 02 Oct, 2012 5:05 pm
After a long and hot climb we have summited the mountain. The tent has been set up just down from the peak. I have changed out of sweaty walking clothes into fleeces and down jacket and the sun is nearly down. It is getting cold. The tent is pitched surrounded by large, shallow slabs of granite with occasional low bushes poking through the cracks.
My mate is attending the MSR as it roars away near the tent. My pot is done – he continues to tend to his. I walk maybe 30m down the slab using only the moonlight and find a nice position on the rock to eat dinner and enjoy the peace. The sun is as good as gone, stars are out and it is getting cold. Not a breath of wind, just a still and clear night with dew falling already. The dinner is delicious as anything vaguely hot is on such an evening. I lazily scan the sky for shooting stars.
Suddenly, I catch a little movement out the corner of my eye and glance to my right. A massive silhouette of a man, 2m high and broad is suddenly beside me, perched to strike! I never saw or heard a thing and now he is almost on top of me. Who would be all the way up here, sneaking around so perfectly quiet? This could not be ending well. I cower and dig in my heels ready to run or scream.
The murderer sneezes in a barely audible fashion and then bump, bump.
*&%$#! great roo shocked as I am hops away into the scrub. My heart is not pumping now – more humming like in a little bird. Not sure my change of underwear is still dry.
Mate thinks it is very funny. He probably heard my whimpering and thought for a moment there was a lost little girl up here.
Other than the above pissed bogans doing circle work around the tent at 2am near Marrawah was a bit ‘tedious’.
