THE TRAMPERS’ STORY.

Shannon News, 29 April 1927, Page 4

THE TRAMPERS’ STORY.

A•' Chronicle representative inierviewed the. young men at t ]fe Varnham's residence this ~ afternoon. Their story was as follows They, arrived. at,-Levin at 2 a.m. on Good Friday, and slept at* what Biedrich called “the Grand 11 Hotel”-—a truck on the :railway line. At 5 a.m.,they .} proceeded in glorious weather V to the pipe bridge where they - enjoyed a swim. While they , were there they saw Mr Har- ■’. ris’s party, 1 who were crossing -ii,; fPoni'lJevin to Elketahuna, and rt were greeted by one of the , ■ party. The- We'llirigtonians vi thought it was a shooting par- . ty. The trampers then worked J tip-the Ohau river to the Forks to the - camp- near the top <pf ' the hill. They proceeded up ! Adkin’s track and*made a camp for the.night half-way up the '• ' ridge. It*was here that they made a bed of ferns, which was ' afterwards seen by one of the search parties and thought to be that,of a .deer-stalker, t v " After-a-good night’s rest, they ’ crossed-. Over to:the .Mangahao but lost the track 3a ygpihg'ddwn there and spent the •f-fresh; of .the,, day. (Saturday) / J;? looking for Avalanche ■’Clearwandering- up ana down ~ the Mangah^o,.Eventually they ■ found; the Clearing and slept ’ there : that night. ~ ' Very early on Eaister Sunday morning they started by moonlight for Mount Dundas (4944 !• feet) and got on to the track right away. When they reach- ; : ed Dupdas a wind came up, ’and they saw on the western ; ; .j. horizon, of clouds com- • Jhg'- oVer. l . “We thought we \ could-,, get- to the Mitre,” said Dredric^,^''“if’ we pushed on. By *-*' 4 this time It -was very- windy, but 'we:pushed oh; and reached the y‘\, fop. of the Pinnacles, two or s- "three-miles south-west of Dun- ■* das.': ,

It then looked too dangerous belo,w to go any further and werthoujght we could not be on

the track, so we went down to a stream which we saw on our left (a small'tributary of the ‘Waingawa) . It was very difficult going. We did not get to the’'bottom and turned it in, ; to the main I ridge ’/ north of the Pinnacles. By this ' - time the 'gale was right on us, i J with;'* heavy mist, so we went down on-our right into Park 'Walley.' We were greatly imj&fefcS&Lwitbithe beauty of that -We found a mound " 'ahout six; feet high with a sort of-trencli under it, and we decided to spend the night there, the ( time then being about 4 p.mu on Sunday. It was rain- ■ :■ ' ing&heavily and we spent that night, Monday, Tuesday and ' Wednesday there. At this time v it was very misty; ( We could fl: hear the- howling .of the gale over 4 the ridge above' Us,, but’ we did not'know what it was like-further down the range. ; “On. Thursday at 4 p.nv, the : a; weather'-moderated little and } we. decided 1 to., give. it a. go to get; >to Dundas. :h up thkt ridge, feeling very supply, howr then.

onions, a lemon, a tin of salmon and ten potatoes. Our matches? were all wet. -

“As we were going back to Dundas, we seemed to take the wrong ridge. (The ridge they found themselves on was the large one dividing the sources of the Ruamahanga and Waingawa river). The country about us was full of deer, and we saw great herds of them. They were very tame too. They are plentiful from Dundas on- < ward. The only thing we would hear at night was the occasional mournful calling of the deer. . “Rain and mist came on again and we descended to a rock .about six feet below on the left of the ridge. We went under it and spent Thursday night, Friday and Saturday there. 4

“On Friday and Saturday all we had to live on was one onion. On Sunday the weather broke fine about 7 a.m. for about ten minutes, after which it came over as bad as before. We were sure than that the end had come.

[At this stage there is a gap in the story told with remarkable clearness and continued by Diedrich, and neither of the lads have a clear recollection of what happened on this day when hope was at its lowest ebb.] “Next morning (Monday) we woke up and it was still raining. About 10 o’clock the weatner cleared, and on our right we saw a little stream wnich leads down to the source of the Mangahao river. We followed that and late on Monday afternoon we came to some waterfalls. Scanlon fell 20 ieet down one of them, but suffered no mury. We camped on the banks of the Mangahao river on Monday night, hi ext day we pushed on and reached Avalanche Clearing in the evening, it was ,a wonderful experience for us to find there the provisions left by one search party. These undoubtedly saved our lives for ail we had was six small .potatoes and no means of making a fire. The trip down the Mangahao was a deadly one, it being always previously considered impassable, being broken by precipices in all directions. We camped at Avalanche Clearing on Tuesday nignt. On Wednesday although feeling weak, we made a bold'bid to cross Deception Ridge and eventually found the track that had recently been widened out by Mr Hams and others. The blazed trees were a great help. It took us about two hours to get to the top of the Ridge because we were pretty --well fagged. We came down to the Ohau Forks last night and there we found more provisions, including butter and jam which made us feel greatly bucked up. “This morning we left the Forks, came down to the clearing, where Mr Gimblett saw us approaching and called out to time did he feel the cold particus.”

Scanlon remarked that at no ularly except at night, but he admitted that it.was terribly cold on the top of the range.

rich, “we went to bed hoping we would get up alright in the morning, but in several cases we were tob fagged to get up, even to get a drink of water when it was only a few hundred yards away from us. The trampers were on the. track at the Pinnacles and were stopped only by the .weather; it was on the return journey owing to the fog and mist that they missed their direction. To everybody’s surprise both lads are in good condition, weary and fatigued perhaps, but otherwise none the worse for their twelve nights adventure. MET ABOVE THF TANKS. LOST BEYOND DUNDAS. ' A . Mr Gimblett and his son were working with a dray at the Black Hole, just past the settling tanks this afternoon, their thoughts naturally dwelling on what has been the chief topic of conversation in Levin for the past week. Their surprise and pleasure can be imagined when the two lads came into view making their wayfslowly down the bed of the Ohau River. They were in a weak state, but their condition was surprising in view of what they had gone through in privation and exposure. The wanderers were brought down in the cart part of the way and Mr Gimblett, junr., went to the nearest house —that of Mr Varnham, who brought his car up and took them down to the house, where everything possible was done for their comfort.

The lads stated that they got across Dundas and lost their way in the wild country beyond that peak. They rationed their food, and lived for two days on one onion. When the weather cleared, they commenced their return journey, and were greatly, assisted by the discovery of the food placed under a log by the Mangahao party, and marked by a cigarette tin. ! Yesterday they got to the forks of the Ohau and . made their w