Diary

Thursday, 11.03.04
What a sight! No cloud as far as I can see.
Off I go on the small but fast passenger boat from Cougar Lines towards Ship Cove and the trailhead of the Queen Charlotte Track.
After visiting the monument which states some info on Captain Cook who arrived there a couple of times I hit the trail at a rather high pace because I wanted to do the track in 3 days which means that I will need to walk the first 2 day trips in one. 27 km on one day is rather much but the way should be straight forward.
Funny… my body must have adjusted to the climate. I was able to hold the pace and even overtook the day trampers (with only small bags) that started 20 minutes before me.
This is how the Caribbean must look like. Beautiful.
Had 3 brakes today, one of them was not really planned, but there it was… a remote cave with a little jetty in it and crystal clear green water. I just couldn’t let this one pass. Just had to take a quick swim in there ;-)

Arrived at the camp side at Punga Cove (holiday place for the richer ones) and put up my tent there. I decided that from now on I will kill the sand flies without a warning beforehand.
Annoying but brave little buggers. Met another local here. Came checking out my backpack while I was cooking. Those funny little wingless birds are called “Wekas” and are always good for a laugh. It always came sneaking from behind checking my campsite for leftover or droppings from my dinner and the moment it had found something it picked it up and went off like a rocket with this “uuck, uuck, uuck,…” sound towards the safe forest ... only to reappear moments later for the next bite.
Went to the resort pub, bought two small bottle of beer and happily drank them at the end of the jetty there with the lake all around me and the mountains being caught by submerging clouds.

Friday, 12.03.04
There you have it! Had to get up in the middle of the night to take a piss. No beer tomorrow just before bedtime. But the almost full moon with only scattered clouds in the sky made it worth it.
Woke up at 8.00 a.m. and kind of knew that this day would not be the best of all.
I was tired, my body felt wasted, thick dark clouds in the sky and a lot of condensed water inside my tent. My motivation of walking 23 km today dropped below zero. Killing some sand flies also didn’t bring me the necessary satisfaction to rise my mood. Ate some cereals with “delicious” milk powder, drank some iodine treated water, packed my tent and wondered why the heck I am doing this.
The first two hours I sort of separated my mind from my body and just kept on walking. There was even some slight drizzle at times. But with the sun coming through around noon my mood started to rise. When I reached the campsite at Portage Bay I was in a great mood although very exhausted. And there it was again. The perfect opportunity to take a swim in the crystal clear water on a small beach at the campsite. Put up my tent to dry and went straight for the water. It was very cold and standing in it up to my hip I thought about getting out again but right then some anglers saw me and shouted over that I shouldn’t be such a whooze and jump in.
Courageously defending my horror I jumped in. Took a while for my breathing to get normal again but once swimming it wasn’t too cold anymore. I swam a couple of meters and was just mocking around with an occasional yelp of joy when I noticed that the water actually carries you if you turn on your back and keep still.
There I was… felling like having defied gravity just floating on the crystal clear water with the thick and green forest all around me. Do I need to say more? Probably the best time so far on the entire holidays.

Saturday, 13.03.04
Motivation is good today :o)
From Portage Bay to Mistletoe Bay it took me only 1 h ¾ instead of the signposted 4 hours. Took it a lot easier the other half of the way up to Tirimouna where the pick up with Cougar Lines was arranged at 4.00 p.m. Had to change to my rain trousers after this “run” in the morning because the others were just too wet. Also got my first blister today. Nice little thing! Must have been the Tschibo socks. Used them the first time today. Probably have about 20 sand fly bites by now. Not too bad. Otherwise a nice walk today with lots of nice views and only 2 little hills to climb. Still, I feel tired but happy. So that was the Queen Charlotte Track. An easy track although long days and a lot of walking.