That Mad Belgian

[bushwalker zane]

Zane, yes that is the route I encouraged him to take before departure. I showed him on the map where to drop off from the Font, and how beautifully it links via Shining and Conical to the head of the Pleaides ridge near Pokana. It's a magnificent walk. He could drop down to Holley Basin but the line I showed him drops down from near the start of the Pleaides to Pokana Bay. Just one of numerous choices to make.

That is a lovely route indeed! Some nice open country up there.

[north-north-west]

Pokana Ridge to either Holley Basin or Pokana Bay has a little awkward country, but nothing he couldn't handle. Keeping off the rivers is the best decision he's made.
Still going to be a long hard bash, but he should get through.

[Overlandman]

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https://eur-share.inreach.garmin.com/louphi

http://www.louis-philippe-loncke.com

29 Aug. Bought a 15$ headlight, got sunglasses from Lost&Found. Repaired boat. Paddled entire Lake King William in dusk, dark then under moonlight. New route via The Spires.

It was -3 nearby as he was approaching the Southern end of the Lake.
Wonder if he can have a campfire?

[Mountain Rocket]

I was probably fortunate that he had his pack-raft mishap when he did, rather than further along the Gordon where is becomes much harder to make an alternate route. Seems like the wake up call he needed.

Seeing as he's well within the Franklin - Gordon Wild Rivers National Park, I *&%$#! hope he isn't lighting camp-fires Overlandman (as much as I'm sure it'd be lovely)!

Given the extra(?) time it'll take to cross the Spires it'll be interesting to see if he still tries to go up Wedge or Anne, or out to South West Cape. I'm also curious as to how he'll get up onto the Spires. I haven't read many trip reports from that area, but I guess the 'default' option would be to head up onto KWII from near Lake Rufus and along and down off the ridge and then up from there? Or is the lower stuff between Lake KW and The Spires not too bad/better?

[MrWalker]

If there is anyone here in contact with Louis-Philippe, can they suggest to him that his Go-Pro pics will be much more valuable if taken in daylight.

I can understand why he made a late start down the lake after repairing his boat and that led to a late start yesterday. But his average speed south was around 1km/hr in daylight but only 0.4km/hr after last light (about 6:15pm). He needs to average 1km/hr to do the approx 40km south in a week. Walking at night might be fun on a well-formed track, but where he is now it is not worth the extra effort.

[north-north-west]

I can understand why he made a late start down the lake after repairing his boat and that led to a late start yesterday. But his average speed south was around 1km/hr in daylight but only 0.4km/hr after last light (about 6:15pm). He needs to average 1km/hr to do the approx 40km south in a week. Walking at night might be fun on a well-formed track, but where he is now it is not worth the extra effort.

He's obviously not a morning person.
It's *&%$#! daft, actually. Just makes it so much harder on every level, including navigation. Get up early, boyo, and make the most of the light.

ps: current line looks like he's trying to head for Battlement. That will be interesting.

[stepbystep]

I'm sure he made that decision last night! He's off!!, his hardest Cpl days walking ahead of him...unless he changes his mind and jumps in the Gordon

[jdeks]

Well, he's evidently given up on the unsupported/unresupplied goal so I guess the pressure's off.

[jmac]

Looks like he's been blown seriously off-course this morning. The tracker shows him approaching Heard Island at 10:27 AM

[jmac]

Obviously the tracker signal has had difficulty penetrating the thicker scrub as he pushed down to the upper Gordon. He's just created a Waypoint a; likely for his own reference. I don't think he'll push past the Gell River to Battlement; more likely to follow the ridge north of Gell up towards the high ground adjacent to Innes High Rocky, from where it is a relatively easy walk to the Font. That is the first of two routes I encouraged him to consider.

[north-north-west]

Looks like he's been blown seriously off-course this morning. The tracker shows him approaching Heard Island at 10:27 AM

Yeah, I had a WT *$&# moment when I saw that earlier this morning.

[Warin]

A slow day to day - and a short one.

31 Aug. Bushbashing in tea tree, acacia (?) and a thick wall of cutting grass. 250m in 2h. All with massive mikado of huge fallen trees. Lost the paddle then found it again. Ok.

I hope he gets some good rest tonight and gets away earlier than he has been doing.
Think he might be re-evaluating what he said about not ever going back to the PCT!

--------------- edit ...
Still moving, just slowly. May have taken a break and posted the above message then.
I'd like to know his thinking on night manoeuvres and not using the morning light.

[geoskid]

Huge effort to date. I too have been surprised by the hours he keeps. Getting more interesting now. He's going OK - heading straight for the old airstrip. He's a *&%$#! machine carrying that weight - I'm root'n for him!

[Tortoise]

I'd like to know his thinking on night manoeuvres and not using the morning light.

Maybe he's preparing for an unsupported, unresupplied Tasmanian traverse in winter at night?
I must confess that in little tiny ways, he's encouraging me to up the ante on adventurous walks.

[north-north-west]

I think he's just not a morning person, and the weather has been particularly atrocious in the mornings so he's had slow starts and has kept walking as late as possible to make up time. You can do that easily enough on track, but it's counter-productive when you're scrub bashing. Makes accurate navigation too difficult.
He's strong, tough, determined, but not particularly well organised.

[Lizzy]

I was waiting for the ... not particularly bright
I could imagine wanting to walk later in summer with the heat & longer days but at this time of the year it seems to be asking for trouble.
Anyway good luck to him I am enjoying following his adventures but find him crazy none the less!

[beardless]

Potential reasons for his night walking:
1. Strong body clock still set to Belgium daylight hours
2. He likes maximising chances of encountering Australia's nocturnal marsupials.
3. He navigates using the stars.
4. With all the snow about he wants to reduce chances of snow blindness.
5. He is spending time on the scientific surveys in the morning but wants to make up the time waking.
6. He is not a morning person.

[north-north-west]

It's 11:30. He stopped before 7pm yesterday. And he's still not moving.

beardless, you left one other option off the list: he's a masochist.

[ILUVSWTAS]

When I saw him at pelion he said he was struggling in the mornings due to coldness. What usually takes him 30mins to pack up he said it was taking 2 hrs.

[north-north-west]

He's reached the old airstrip. Depending on how the track from there to the river is he should make slightly better time for a few km.

[Nuts]

Haha.. go mad belgian, go!

I guess with all that food he may have planned in short days. 4/5hrs pushing through 'cutting grass and t-tree' would be a big enough day, especially solo? Can't tell what sort of effort he's needing to put in to make the distances.

Luckily he seems to be surrounded by all those bowling greens (going on the the satellite view)

[north-north-west]

Goes halfway along the airstrip and then turns around and is now pushing through the buttongrass to the west of the old track. There must be a reason, but I'm buggered if I can work it out.

[doogs]

I reckon he's probably trying to follow the ridge, must have looked open from the airstrip...

[north-north-west]

But from the satellite it will turn to *&%$#! fairly soon.

The old track will be overgrown but still easier going that what he has directly in front of him.

[doogs]

But from the satellite it will turn to *&%$#! fairly soon.

The old track will be overgrown but still easier going that what he has directly in front of him.

it's easier walking on buttongrass plains at night.. ?
The track is quite visible on the satellite view in places, not sure if he had time to scope out the route as he had originally planned to raft the Gordon. He may have though the airstrip was the end of the road.

[north-north-west]

It is. The northern end.

[Warin]

But from the satellite it will turn to *&%$#! fairly soon.
The old track will be overgrown but still easier going that what he has directly in front of him.

The old track is shown in OSM, and visible in satellite views for at least some sections.
Garmin inreach rendering shows the track .. but not when you zoom in.
Was this not part of his intended route - meaning he has less knowledge of it?

He did go down the old runway .. but the old track may not be visible there.
The button grass and daylight run out fairly soon now.

Entertaining for us sheltered and rested types .. hard slog for him.

[Overlandman]

1 Sept. Light rain, snow and scrub. Not yet at Gell river. Vegetation around old airstrip is huge compared to 2006. Branch in eye. Cannot see well. Hope it's not permanent >:-(

[north-north-west]

"Not yet at Gell River"
He's still five or six km north of the Gell, and the scrub is going to be getting scrubbier from the look of it.

[tastrax]

It will be interesting to see which way he goes today - over to the track or ????