Egmont National Park

The first view out of the window the next morning was phenomenal! Mount Egmont in all its glory and not a single cloud in sight. Unfortunately, that changed quickly, and when I began my hike around 7 AM, it started to lightly rain within 15 minutes. I didn’t give up hope that it would clear up in the afternoon, especially when I saw a rainbow after 2.5 hours.

Until I reached Henry's Peak and was almost at my destination, I walked mostly under trees and stayed mostly dry. From Henry's Peak onwards, that changed abruptly, and within a few minutes, my pants and shoes were completely soaked.

When I finally arrived at Reflection Pond after 3.5 hours of hiking, I first took off my wet pants, put on dry ones, and pulled my rain pants over them. At the beginning of the hike, it was quite cold, so I had worn two pairs of pants, but I took one off on the way because I got too warm. Why didn’t I put on the rain pants as soon as I realized I was getting wet? I don’t know.

For the next two hours, I walked around the small pond to keep warm. Then Stefan came from the other end of the trail, and we talked for an hour. Although three other people had already passed me before Stefan arrived, I was the first person he met. Funny that he happens to be from Berlin too!

After waiting together for another hour for it to finally clear up, we decided to give up. I definitely had to retrace my steps since my car was at the end. Stefan was a bit more flexible because he had to be picked up by a friend after the hike anyway. So, Stefan came with me to avoid taking the same boring route back with an incredible number of steps.

The return journey was a 4.5-hour ordeal. I still can’t believe that we took an hour longer to get back down than I did to go up. After just two hours, I was just glad to have company, and what nice company it was! After hours of rain, the forest floor was completely soaked and muddy, water was standing in many spots, and the rain got worse. Soaking wet, either from rain or sweat, we reached my car and were able to stand under the trunk lid for a moment. We didn’t want to sit inside to avoid making everything dirty.

Kindly, Stefan offered me to come with him and his buddy to their accommodation. There I could take a shower, do laundry, and even dry it right in the dryer - I don’t know how I would have gotten my things dry in the car... It was a really lovely evening with Stefan and Felix, Indian food, tea, and nice conversations, and when the dryer was finished, Stefan brought me back to my van.

Oh, by the way, the title image shows my view of the pond and the non-reflection of Mount Egmont in it. But I also took a photo of the sign on purpose. That’s the kind of picture I wished for!