We started the day with a hearty breakfast of Backcountry bacon, eggs, hashbrown and baked beans meal with Belvita breakfast biscuits. Then we filled our water bottles, packed our gear and hit the trail.
The trail didn’t muck around. It started climbing almost immediately and didn’t let up for almost the whole 17km that day.
We travelled through open grass forest and rainforest. The forest type changed depending on our altitude and which side of the range we were on. We crossed small rocky palm lined reentrants, and walked under impossibly tall eucalypts and bunya pines.
The 17km were tough. The hills seemed to go forever and the fire trail sections were rough underfoot. But whenever I felt tired I though about how privileged we all are to be walking here in this beautiful wilderness area. It means we have health, freedom, leisure time and access to such bushland.
We spent the day being accosted by blood sucking leeches. There were little black ones and big brown monsters with yellow stripes. By days end we all had patches of blood on our shoes and trousers.
Tallowood Walkers Camp was calm, peaceful and pretty. It was set amongst tall timbers. Someone who camped here before us laid out lots of bark as a mattress so I pitched my tent on it for insulation from the cold.
Total: 17km @ 3kph.
Transventure 
Blood sucking leeches?!?! And here I was thinking I would love to do that hike!
LOL. Leeches are a fact of life here in the sub tropics. You get used to them. They’re still gross and you still pull them off but you don’t get grossed out anymore when you grow up with them.