A few weeks later and hopefully (but actually not) a little wiser, I headed back to where I had left off on day 2. The weather was looking kind, although the forecast did suggest rain was coming later in the day. The first section of the trail was along an unsealed road, so a good running surface. Unfortunately as is my wont, I started daydreaming and missed the trail turn off only realising my error some considerable time later. As I was wrestling with my map, apps and general ignorance, Duncan, a kindly farmer pulled over and informed me I had missed the turn off by about 5 km. Taking pity on me, he offered me a ride back to the turn off and as he didn’t seem like an axe murderer, I gratefully accepted his offer. Something you tell your children to never do. Duncan was quite familiar with the trail as he said it crossed his farm property at Inman Valley.
Back on the trail, I headed toward the sea again. The trail was overgrown, and due to recent rain, the grass was quite wet and my feet were soon completely soaked. However I find my Hoka One One Speedgoats remain comfortable despite being wet and dry quickly. In any event, no blisters, so winning!
The next hurdle I encountered was Coolawang Creek exiting into the ocean. After much deliberation and fruitless scouting for a dry way around, I decided that as my feet were already wet, I should just plough across the shallowest point I could find. Then it was a scramble up the other side and after a bit more cliff side trail, down and along Parsons Beach.
By now it was getting quite blustery, and I found this part of the trail quite unnerving as the trail was rough, rocky and too close to the cliff edge for my cowardly nature. So it was slow progress until I picked my way down again onto Waitpinga Beach. Having not even considered tide times might be relevant (rookie mistake #3), I was duly rewarded for my stupidity with an incoming tide. So instead of running along a beach, I had to slog through the sand dunes, trying as best I could to avoid the local flora.
Finally I made it up off the dunes onto the trail up to the car park. As the weather was definitely deteriorating, and there were no further pick up points before Victor Harbour, I decided not to press on and called the pick up crew.
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