Aborted Journey To The Lookout Point

I got up pretty early today, packed up all my stuff, and made breakfast with the last of my veggies and rice. Then I checked out of the hostel, but they'll let me hang in the common areas until I leave tonight.

I was pretty sluggish this morning, but around noon, I decided to try to find a good walk today. So I was thinking that I would go to the lookout point on top of the highest mountain outside Coffs Corners, which is called The Forest Pier. I asked the woman at the hostel desk if there was any shuttle or bus that went there, and she didn't know of any. So I told her maybe I would just walk there.  She was aghast that I was even considering that; she said it was way too hot and too far.

I looked it up on my GPS, and it was about a six hour walk roundtrip, and way the fuck out of town. No big deal, six hour walk. So I took off on my journey.

But as I got further out of town, I realized my GPS on my phone would run out of batteries fast. So I had to turn my phone off, and turn it on every once in a while to check my progress. This was working fine until I missed a turn because the street I was supposed to go down was not marked with a sign. And then I ended up walking way past it,  and didn't realize it until much layer, when I next turned on my phone to spot-check my progress.

But another problem was, once I got outside the town, there were no more sidewalks. The roads were narrow, and they were cluttered with profuse weeds and vegetation along the borders. So I had to walk in the street and either jump in the weeds when a car came, or stay in the street and hope I didn't get run over when the shrubbery was too thick.

Also, it was REALLY hot, and the sun was beating down on me. I decided to turn around when I had walked about halfway there; maybe a little more than halfway if you consider the wrong way I took. If I had walked the whole way, I would have gotten really sunburned. As it was, I got a little toasty, though the back of my right calf got the worst of it for some reason.

Since my phone was off most of the time, I didn't take any pics, and all the territory I covered in town, I had covered before and taken photos.

So I think I'll just stay at the hostel for the rest of the day until my bus leaves late tonight. I've had plenty of adventure for the day.

I took this picture as I was heading out of town.

Back at the hostel, I took a picture of the peak I had tried to reach.  That is it between the trees.