The Hobbits started their journey while camping at Big River this weekend. Not quite the rolling hills of the Shire, but pleasant walking none the less.
We started our hike from the quarry at Messmate Saddle, following Messmate Rd past the Helipad and out to the Cambarville Rd junction, then we turned around and walked back. Initially we thought that Messmate Rd would follow the ridge line, we soon discovered that the track follows a mid-line between the ridge and Koala Creek.
To work out the mileage of the hike we used the Garmin eTrex’s track features (one of the Hobbits also played around with the track-back feature). From this data we were able see that we had walked 10.353km (6.43 miles). This puts us somewhere around the point that the Hobbits Cross The Great Road from the Brandywine Bridge. Enter Tookland on Day 1. Hmmm.. not even second breakfast for us today.
“Samwise Gamgee, Frodo Baggins and Peregrine Took started out from Bag End on the evening of September 23. It was a fine, early fall night in the Shire and they took advantage of the great walking weather; they walked 18 miles that first evening!” (Eowyn Challenge)
We did manage to see, 2 x Blue Tongue lizards [alive], 1 x Blue Tongue lizard [dead], 1 x tiger snake [alive], 1 x Samba Deer [alive] and 1 x Mirkwood Elf [non-existent] as we rambled on our way.
