I made a quick sprint on the bike for a night at my home village. It was a bad idea - suddenly I was confronted by faxes, post, WORK!! I felt the artificial world we create crowding in. I hurried to pack again and move on, back to the real thing.

This leg was a classic traverse of Kanangra Boyd/Blue Mountains National Park, through dissected sandstone plateaux with their soaring cliffs and deep valleys. I was mainly riding on old fire trails but with one big carry down a narrow, steep path for 500m to the Cox's River and a struggle, slipping and sliding, up the other side. Sun turned to miserable rain, bringing with it soakings and rising rivers. But Sydney was almost in sight.

The last camp was at Euroka, with kangaroos bounding and cockatoos squawking in the treetops. This was my last camp before leaving the mountains.