Day 7 - Kowmung River upstream and Mt Armour

It's paradise camped on the Kowmung River, and we find it very hard to leave, In fact we stayed for 5 hours, enjoying the sun shine, drying out clothes, and swimming in the river.
Only Aaron and Ricky don‘t go in.
A snake slithers along the bank and explores Nathan’s drying clothes

We follow the river upstream for 3km but this takes us 7 hours!!
First Kym ignores the warning about snakes and hikes in shorts and thongs,
until he almost stands on one. Screams for help, and hastily gets changed,
some more of his bravado knocked off.

Michael is becoming obsessed with getting home and Jake is desperate.
Aaron’s suggestion, “Lets walk until we get to the top of Mt. Armour then stop and have lunch,”
as usual falls on deaf ears.

“We’re a bunch of idiots" declares Jake. “We DO need rules and guidelines. That’s what our teachers have tried to tell us. I say we pick a leader and don’t just go for your mates or the try hards. We can all be friends so it doesn't matter.” This didn’t stop anyone from mucking around at lunchtime, trying to rumble Nic and Ross.

The track up Mt Armour is hard to find and Ross and Nic keep walking in circles as the light fades “Where do we go?” asks a naive Ricky. “Up there,” points Ross (in the wrong direction)
So he grabs the others sitting on their butts, waiting for someone to do the work for them and walk to the top of the wrong knoll “You told us the wrong way,” whined Ricky. “Sponge off people and you take what you get "

The others have found the right way and we begin the long plod up the goat track led by Michael. “I don’t care what anyone else does l’m just looking after my partner.” “Naw There‘s 10 blokes out here. We got to work together." The hard climb brings all the bickering out again and its night when we reach the top.
Dark clouds and strong winds race towards us as the light fades, punctuated by flashes of lightning. We still have a long way to go before we can camp tonight, We are cold exhausted and hungry and just want to camp on the track but if we do there‘s no chance of getting to the vehicle in time tomorrow by 1pm. lts 28km awayl

Tattered rainjackets and a beanie make a big difference The trail from here to Coolong Swamp is an overgrown 4WD track but we still need to climb some massive hills and don’t reach camp until midnight. Those with fuel, water and the energy, cook some dinner but most just roll off to bed. We still have 21km to go tomorrow and need to be away by dawn - 5 hours sleep