LAST WOMAN ON THE TRAIL

“ARE you still on the track?” A text from a friend, hiking four days behind me, beeps through on my phone.

“Yeah, why?” I reply, as I settle into camp at Lake Monibeong.

“I was just taken out by a ranger and returned to my car. I’ve been told to go home.”

Only then do I use a little more of my precious single phone charge to check my emails and discover one from Parks Victoria. Due to a burgeoning global pandemic, all campgrounds have been closed with immediate effect. “Please get back to your car as soon as possible and return to your place of residence.” Sure, I’ll be there next Tuesday, I think to myself wryly. My car is over a 100km away and the only way I’m going to reach it is by walking.

I’m on the Great South West Walk, a 250km circuit that begins in Portland, a 4hr drive west of Melbourne. It’s a trail