Walls of Jerusalem – Day 1A – The Killer Bit

You are about to get lots of photos from a four day hike to the Walls of Jerusalem, where the weather was glorious and the scenery magnificent and you’re going to be jealous that you weren’t there.

First, however, we have to deal with the killer bit, the part so horrible that I took no photos because it took me all my effort to do it. I’ve done it once or twice before, but at least 25 years ago, which means I can now claim old age as an excuse. It climbs 400m in 2km, when uphills have never been my forte, and on the day in question it was a very warm and sweat-inducing … well, it felt like 35°C but was probably only 25°C. My pebble trick worked up to a point — but I ran out of pebbles before I ran out of hill, and I hadn’t the energy to pick up any more, and there were a couple of bits where stringing 100 consecutive steps together without stopping was not possible. (It was reassuring to discover that other people we met on our travels had had difficulty too. The warm weather really sapped people’s energy.)

Arriving at Trapper’s Hut was a relief, although there was still some more uphill to come, adding a further 100m of elevation in the next kilometre (for your information — since I have a PhD student particularly interested in these things — “steep descents” on roads are usually marked as such once it’s a 1 in 10 slope or steeper).

Unfortunately, as had happened to me on one of my earlier journeys, the gradual levelling off caused a different problem, as I ended up with really bad cramps in my quadriceps and calf muscles. And to rub salt into the wound (actually, salt would have helped!), my “roll-y toes” were playing up, a curious phenomenon that sometimes occurs when I’m bushwalking (and occasionally otherwise) where it seems as if a couple of my phalanges have close encounters with a nerve, creating a burning, stabbing sensation like being hit on the funny bone every time I take a step. Not fun.

At this point I may have been whinging a bit. Certainly wincing, anyway.

However, I soldiered on, stopping every so often to massage out the cramps, and appreciating the ready distraction of all the beautiful vistas opening to our view once we’d moved above the eucalypt forest. This part of the track passes amongst a series of small tarns known as “Solomon’s Jewels”, where the pencil pines start to make their presence felt and other alpine plants start to feature.

The plant in the photo below is probably Stackhousia monogyna, or “candles”.

There are many boulders dumped on the ground and in the lakes, remnant glacial “erratics” from the ice age that created this particular landscape.

As we got higher, the dramatic profile of King David’s Peak came into view, with Herod’s Gate to its left. (As you are about to discover most of the names in the area have borrowed from Biblical/Middle Eastern nomenclature. You may also have discovered that I couldn’t bring myself to follow the nomenclature board’s disregard for apostrophes on this occasion.)

For most of the four days of the expedition — as later photos will reveal — I am the laggard bringing up the rear of our three person party. My excuse — which I reminded myself of frequently — is that I am nine years older than my brother and well-and-truly old enough to be the oldest aunty of my nephew. As seen below, however, there was a time on that first day when I was out in front … limping a bit, probably, but still out in front.

The boarded track, necessary to protect this fragile wilderness, made its way up to the Wild Dog Creek campsite, where tent platforms also help preserve the environment from human overuse … even if they don’t make it easy to pitch your tent properly. In choosing which of my packaged meals I was going to have for my very welcome dinner, I made a conscious decision to go for the one with the highest salt content, which runs counter to all the usual health advice … except when you have a phobia of waking up in the middle of the night jammed in a sleeping bag in a tiny tent with cramp in both legs!

(Photos of me were taken by my brother David.)