I had been walking for ages, since 9am- it was now 2pm and I encountered my first other people for the day. A guy dressed in camo with a hunting rifle crossing a swing bridge which incidentally the pathway crossed under – an unusual occurrence at the best of time, but this time I had a huge gun pointing down at me through the swing bridge. He looked displeased to see me. He asked if I had come from Venus Hut, even though clearly I was walking towards it. I told him no, that’s where I’m going. He seemed shocked and announced that this track was closed because the huts were getting renovated. Another portly man showed up over the bridge wearing a singlet and carrying a fishing rod. Venus Hut is full he nonchalantly told me, of DOC staff who were flown in by helicopter this morning. I was rattled but just as one if the men started suggesting I turn back and stay at the hut I’d just come from – the one they had obviously planned some kind of broke back mountain adventure in- his friend cut him off and said I should just keep walking. In my mind I’d have to walk all the way to the next hut which would take me well into the night. I imagined myself sleeping in a clearing in the forest under the stars. It wasn’t going to rain and hadn’t been raining and I had enough layers to stay warm so I made peace with this as I planned in my mind to soldier on past the hut and not even talk to the army of DOC staff sleeping at Venus Hut. I get the feeling this huge forest is left mostly alone to the tiny handful of trampers who either live in the park like Brendon or random walkers like myself. Naturally meeting the only other two people in the forest all day telling me I wasn’t supposed to be there caused me to spend the next hour and a half worrying. Suddenly a hut appeared as they do and there were two pairs of boots in the sun on the verandah. I opened the door expecting to find 12 DOC staff in there feverishly renovating. Instead were two elderly gentleman with grey hair sitting at the table. I gawped at them for seconds before asking if it was just them here. When they said yes, they were alone and had been for days, I was overjoyed. I left the two old gay Dutch dudes and went and got naked and dived into the swimming hole ignoring the sixty billion sandflies eating my flesh. Something about deep water in a river makes me nervous so I couldn’t fully relax but I felt energised and clean and my sore toes appreciated the cold water I let run over them while I smoked some cones.
When I came back up to the hut I learned that my hut mates had studied together in the Netherlands some 50 years ago and go hiking together every year since. They are doing the same track as me but in the opposite direction. They are obviously secret gay lovers. so I said “you must be best friends and know each other very well after spending so much time alone in the forest together” one of them quickly said “what about you? Where are you from?” I wonder why they have never announced their love to the world. Their beds are on polar opposite ends of the shelf. There is obviously no cuddling.
I got my GoPro out and started filming. I got one of them in the frame and apologised saying “I’m going to make a video so I remember everything” and he replied “it’s all the same in the end”.
He is very cut for an old man. You can tell he was hot when he was younger. The other guy looks like a professor with white hair and black framed glasses and perfectly straight teeth (obviously not real). I asked what they studied 53 years ago. He said theology and philosophy. I asked what they had become after that. The two men had moved to a remote Indonesian island and spent years helping the villages grow food.
They mentioned casually that as teenagers they had hitch hiked around Europe but the conversation quickly turned to how much food one must carry on some hiking track in Italy. I glazed over immediately. I interrupted saying “I need to change the subject. Tell me about hitch hiking around Europe in the 60s” I got them reminiscing for a short while about a trip long forgotten. They had a few hearty laughs but the conversation turned quickly to the demise of tramping clubs leading to the neglect of the tramping network. I personally think it’s astonishing I can sleep in a hut in the remote forest for $5 a night.
Tomorrow I will get to Trevor Carter Hut. Both the gay dudes and Brendon speak fondly of this hut. I wouldn’t mind getting out of this forest into a more popular one with hot Israeli soldiers. I’m days away from the end of the trail.
Josh walks south 