Day 46 Alexandra to Ettrick

Walked by Mike & Rapid 52km 61066 steps Walked by Ella 11.7km
Today started off with moderate temperatures and an overcast sky. By 9am it was warm but then the weather started to change. First of all a westerly wind bringing a couple fo showers. Then at Roxburgh the southerly change came through. It got cooler but fortunately the rain started only a few minutes before I got to Ettrick.

I have now made up all the distance from Tuesday which pleases me greatly.

As the National Bank in Alexandra is only about a 100m from where we were staying I headed off on my own with Rapid and Ella. After about 5km I realised my left heel was not settling down so I called Ted to come and adjust the dressing. Ted caught up with me after another kilometre and Ella went back into the van then. The ODT article was working and while the traffic was light quite a few people stopped and gave money. However the road between Alexandra and Coal Creek Flat is fairly twisty and once the traffic got heavy at 10am with people going to Alexandra for the blossom festival or Dunedin for the rugby I got no more donations until the road straighted out.

I'm not quite sure where all the time went but I only managed to cover 8km in the 2 hours. I never made up any of that time all day. The cafe at Fruitlands made me a BLT which went down really well. Ngaire also got me a hot chocolate. She also walked a few kilomteres with me from there which included a rather steep climb out of Obelisk Creek.

The cafe at Shingle Creek has now closed so I had to have a cup of tea from the thermos to warm up. I asked Ella if she wanted to walk from Shingle Creek but she declined the offer. Ngaire did walk with for a bit then.

In the morning there were lots of classic cars heading towards Alexandra. Later in the day this got replaced by lads in their souped up Holdens. I had more obscene gestures made at me today than in all the rest of the trip. I feel really sorry for the police having to control these people tonight in Alexandra.

I got to the edge of Roxburgh about 3:30. Ngaire and Ella walked with me. It took about half an hour to cover 1.7km but we did collect quite few donations. After leavin g Roxburgh Ngaire and Ted went on to Millers Flat where we are staying in Daine Power's cottage while I carried on walking. Ted came back as I was walking through Dumbarton and stayed with me to the finish.

Ella walked the last few kilometres into Ettrick. I also took Rapid's shoes off as he would be able to walk along the grass verge the rest of the way. Ella and Ripid were playing games for the last 45 minutes of the trip. This surprised me as when we walked a similar distance on Monday over Crown Range Rapid was exhausted. I also had 2 offers of dinner.

After a rather nice dinner cooked by Ngaire Ted and I have gone down to the Ettrick Pub to watch the Rugby. My excuse is that there is no internet connection possible at Miller Flat.