I was up early as usual, but I got talking with Sam and Laura and Laura, so I didn’t wake Holger up early. So we got going a little late. Then we stopped for breakfast and a proper coffee. Then a second coffee. It was a late start.
The hike is 20k of beach followed by 10k of road into Invercargrill.
The first 10k went quickly, it was cloudy and cold, but at least it wasn’t raining like the day before.
Around 12k in there’s a river, which we heard wasn’t a big deal, so we might have been a little relaxed about the tides. High tide was 3:30 and we got to the river around 2. Right away we knew we made a mistake. I packed my camera and phone in a dry bag and started walking across, but turned back when it got waist deep. I packed my pack above my head and tried again, this time I made it to chest deep before turning around. Holger started walking up the river looking for an easier spot to cross. He tried a couple before stripping down and crossing naked with his pack over his head. Where he crossed it was just over waist deep. So I followed.
After that we were stuck in the dunes for a bit trying to get back to the trail. We found a rough trail that went back to the beach and followed the beach the rest of the way to the road turnoff.
We didn’t intend to hitch the road, but when cars came we stuck out our thumbs while walking and we got picked up rather quickly.