Te Araroa Trail – Day 43
Saturday, December 16, 2023
Distance/ Total: 42.2 km / 26.2 mi
I had another restless night of sleep due to my legs, hip and feet were hurting throughout the night. After last night I don’t think it’s my hip that is bothering me. It feels more like a muscle strain in my groin, but I can’t feel anything out of place. I’ve got 2 more days of walking then I’m going to do the Whanganui River and I’ll be canoeing for 5 days. I’ll see how I feel after that.
The trail today was more walking through regrowth forest with a couple of suspension bridges over deep canyons. About 10km in I came to the start of the old railroad bed that was used to haul logs out of the forest.
The trail was wide in places, but also passed through some narrow canyons cut through rocks that must have been a tight squeeze for some of the logs. By mid-afternoon I had reached a spiral that looped the old railroad around itself in order to drop in elevation. There was also a tunnel on the spiral which made for a very cool section of trail.
The trail then followed the edge of a cliff line for several kilometers before rejoining a gravel road and then back on a single track around some farmland.
I reached the Bennett campsite about 7:00 pm, set up my tent and then cooked dinner in the shelter. I crawled into my tent after eating hoping to get some better rest tonight. My feet, groin, and legs feel better than they did last night.
