It was a lovely sunny morning as we broke camp. Katy and the others had to get the kids to kung fu lessions and i hit the trail again.
It was an extremely hot day as i progressed over more hills. Arriving at the avon estuary, my next crossing i decided to take some time out. It was too hot to continue comfortably so i found a little area of grass sheltered from the sea breeze and lay down. I woke a couple of hours later, made a coffee to help me regain consciousness and set off towards the river to pick a place to cross.
Getting hoolley ready everything was text book until "snap-ping". As i was inserting the final piece to the spray deck brace it snapped in two. On closer examination it quickly became apparent that salt corrosion had weakened the metal brace. It was just a matter of time before it would fail.
There was nothing I could do about it so i hopped in and made the crossing. Everything went well just a few moments later i was back on shore and packing her away. It wasn't til later that evening that i realised I'd made a huge mistake of biblical proportions. Whilst pre - occupied with the damaged brace I'd hung my fleece and jacket on a rock off the sand. I hadn't repacked them. They were still on the rock and I'd hiked for several hours on to soar mill cove. It wasn't worth hiking back on the off chance they were still there and it certainly wasn't worth crying over now. It would soon be dark. I'd have to try and contact somebody the following day to try and get replacements. I just hoped the weather stayed good until then or i could be in big trouble. Why didn't i check the area around me like i always did. How did i leave without noticing.
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