Nothing But Distance and Time

At the end of November 2019, a group of 11 university students left civilization for 20 days in the wilderness. Broken down, this meant 10 days hiking through Kosciusko National Park followed by 10 days canoeing on the Murray River. This is the story of their journey, told through the lens of a 40 year old film camera. 

Awaiting departure we were joined by a mob of kangaroos, which provided a small distraction from the nervous anticipation that was growing within the group. Tomorrow we would begin hiking through the mountains in the background here.

Day 1 began like this ...

... and ended like this. 

The snow storm that greeted us on day 1 made for some slow and tough hiking in the days that followed. Fortunately, we were blessed with blue bird days and epic views to make the slog worth it. Perks of hiking mountains in the snow? Sliding back down them on your ground sheet of course!

We conquered Australia's highest mountain, Mount Kosciusko, then hiked on to the first of many huts.

One of the most charming huts we visited, Valentines Hut, is a red wooden sanctuary with love hearts painted around the window sills. One month later, this hut was being wrapped in protective foil to help save it from the 2020 Australian bush fires. 

Long days, aching muscles and blistered feet, made all the better with the company of friends.

Finally, after 126km, we reached the outskirts of the Park. 

Our days looked a little different once we hit the water, adopting river time, as our friend Gibbo might say.

Which left plenty of time to appreciate the land around us, and reflect on the adventure we were having.

Until all our kilometres had been paddled, and we headed back to society to resume our normal lives and plan the next adventure.