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It was windy and rained heavily during the night, but had cleared
up by morning and the wind had mostly dried the tent. I woke
up at 7am and had breakfast and packed by 8:30am on what was already
a warmish, but breezy day.
The morning route was virtually entirely cross-country and
involved climbing steadily up to Knockfin Heights (~400m), a large
featureless plateau of peat bogs, then crossing the plateau and
descending the other side. Navigation was a little tricky, but
the good visibility helped me avoid mistakes. However,
negotiating the peat bogs and hags was tiring and tedious and it was
noon by the time I finally reached a track on the other side of the
plateau. There were some deer herds around and I did encounter
a small (1m) green and black hooped snake.
The afternoon turned into a steady trudge along 4WD tracks and
gravel roads in countryside which gradually flattened out and
gradually turned from moorland to pastoral. There wasn't much
to see, and my motivation was low, but I just kept plodding along,
knowing that each step today was a step less for tomorrow. I
figured that if I had a reasonably long day today, then tomorrow
would turn into a half day into Watten, where I had pre-booked a
hotel room.
Around 6pm, having reached the last place the guide-book
suggested I would find a place to camp, I started looking for
somewhere to stop and found a rough spot shortly after and set up
the tent in a strong wind which made it difficult. The ground
is tussocky, and I have a couple of bad lumps under the floor of the
tent that I will have to sleep around.
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