Frosty Peaks Day 4 hike
Day 4 – 3 March Bidstone Camp site to Glen Lyon Cave. 16 kms
After folding our tents, there was the aroma of bacon frying from Alan’s kitchen. There was Kim cooking us a bacon and egg breakfast. Where was Bella? Poor Bella was taken to hospital in Barkly East in the night. We made our own paninis for lunch and set off with Margie Frost as our guide. Up over grassy hills and down, with a brief stop below the impressive Skyrun mountain, where the trail runners in the Sky Run race had to register. It was a hot day and at the lunch stop, Ali settled down on a rocky slope for a snooze under her pink umbrella. Ali very stoically battled uncomplainingly every day with a cracked tooth, and completed every km of each day’s hike. Bravo, Ali!
Kim came past in her truck and saved a few of us stragglers the last few tiring kms. We parked at their guest house, which her husband Pete had renovated. We gorged on the apples, picked fresh from the trees in the garden. Then Kim drove us up to the huge cave for our next sleep in the incredible vehicle called a Kubota, a sort of climbing machine cross mountain beast. Kim and Kubota managed the rugged rocky road with much dexterity. Half way up the mountain, there was this magnificent wide cave with a soft sandy floor. There was a table with tea things and a large container over a fire for our hot water for washing, as at every cave stop.
The eco toilet was well positioned with a splendid view up to 2 craggy majestic sandstone buttresses. A loo with a view. You could spend time there but the weather was closing in with black clouds and cool temperatures and a spittle of rain. We explored the quaint rustic shower and toilet facility at the camp site, below the cave, but sadly the shower was cold. Kim cooked us a hot dinner on the gas and we fell into our soft beds, grateful for the shelter of the cave, like the Bushmen of yore, as the rain began to fall.
