From walking tracks to building them

I can assure you from a personal experience today, that to really appreciate a walking track through bush, you actually have to build one.

dscf8501 — Someone with a chain saw is required to cut the bigger foliage away – not to mention the invasive trees that crowd out the native bus

Well, a very short week after walking the Abel Tasman Track I found myself actually building a track. You know, the pick and spade type of stuff, digging great big rocks out of the ground, battling with tree roots and swishing away mosquito and sweat. Watching fellow workers try to decapitate themselves with tools we should no longer be trusted with.

dscf8503 — Then the spade and pick gang move in

We covered about 500m today and our next two scheduled working bees will involve finding our way from the top to the bottom of a 70ft waterfall. Hopefully without becoming a news headline in the process.

dscf8511 — Then hey-presto, a track starts to take shape

The beer tasted great at the end of the day, the soak in the bath was even better but tomorrow I need to head down along the new path to see if I can find some missing tools, collateral damage in any bush path building exercise, I guess.