Lovely coastline today, and my first adventure in following the TA as "marked." I started out climbing out of Riverton into a nice preserve full of cool, dark woods. They were tightly closed, damp, and twisty - mildly reminiscent of the Everglades, but not full of scary critters. After following a trail indicated at the trailhead as belonging to the TA, I promptly followed the wrong set of blazes. The TA is largely marked with orange blazes, as is nearly every trail maintained by the DOC. I got to choose between yellow and pink. Pink was not the right color to follow, but the really closed in single-track was pretty nifty. At least until I ran into 8' tall wire fences and had to loop back to where I started.
After my 2k detour, I emerged into some spectacular sheep country. Rolling meadows broken up by stands of flax ran down to a rocky coastline. Having never seen Scotland, the coasts made me think of Scotland. Up and down I went from beach to farm and back again. The property boundaries keep hikers on the beach as much as possible, but it does make the hike a bit more difficult. I ended up in a incredibly dangerous rocky, dead-end cove that was marked for the trail. I went down between tides, and at absolute low tide it might be passable. I had the waves lapping at my feet right against some cliff faces as I backtracked after realizing that the tide had already cut me off from the connecting segment of beach trail.
Following that coastal snafu, I zigzagging along farmland for a while. I had to stay as close to the beach as possible since the trail traverses private land, but carved away terrain, flax fences, and hip-deep grasses can make finding the steps that help you over sometimes-electrified fences interesting.
Eventually, I made it back on to the beach for a very uncomfortable amount of loose, pebbly beach. Rocky/pebbled coasts I don't mind, but ankle-twisty, gaiter-requiring patches are a whole other game. Thankfully, a couple km of road walking in flip flops and a giant, greasy lamb burger revived me for the last 4k of road walking up to the "cottage."
A school teacher and farmer rent out their yard at the beginning of the Long Hilly Track. I set up my tent in the yard, but they have a guest room that's usually available. I got to sit and chat with them, their kids (one four and three quarters and one five and three quarters year olds - and don't forget the three quarters!), and their visiting father all evening. They were even kind enough to share their chicken curry and apple pudding with me!
I'm glad that I've been able to get my legs and feet started up on this long, flat-ish beach segment, but I'm excited to get into the woods tomorrow. No sign of Sam & Ann, though they said they were aiming for the campground where I got my burger today.
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