Uni Rover Trail Hike Sunday 10th March

Ed and I set out at 7.30am  for the 10k hike to Spinebenders Ridge via the Uni Rover trail. Neither of of had been on the trail before and it took a bit of map reading to stay on course. There was no discernible trail until we got to the ridge. Then it was marked with silver squares nailed to the trees.

The featureless Plateau

Ed after climbing Spinebender Ridge

                               The mysterious flag

At Spinebenders Ridge we plunged down the slope mostly on our asses. It is well named. Eventually Ed rested up on a log and I kept going until I eventually found what I was looking for marked by a little orange flag..Time was short so we couldn't hang around and investigate/

I have never seen so many leeches in my life as on this ridge. What do they live on when they don't have a human to suck on. At  one stage I was pulling them off my shoes as fast as I could before they got on my skin but I couldn't keep up.

Another attractive feature of the ridge was the stinging nettles which fortunately didn't affect me as much as Ed.

I have rarely seen an area with more dead branches on the ground as the plateau which led to many many trips. The worst was when a stick would catch the toe of your shoe and then the other end dug into the ground.

Its sounds awful but I loved it.