Day 28: Altimeter

Last night Mike B had an accident. Saw him this morning and he looked bad. Really shock us all up and I felt like crying. Even though he was obviously not dangerously hurt it reminded me of my uncle's fatal accident and how I had to go and identify him for the police. I think it took a lot out of all of us.

A slow start today. Ellen and I make up a great 'backpacker's' altimeter (the YHA shop will be selling them soon - mark my words!) for the treasure/altitude challenge. But the rain is coming on and it's stopping us going out and using it. Eventually, we get a break in the rain and head out to Sentinel Point again to film the calibration.

The crew, Ellen and I head out to the rough moraine-covered floor of the river bed near to Sentinel Point. Here Ellen and I adjust the device so that it reads zero and then head up to the high point to get the calibration. Once up there we find it has worked but not nearly as much as we had hoped. Our instrument registers only about a 1cm change for the 40m change in altitude. Anyway, it is enough for the challenge and as we have a greater change in height to measure (about 80m), it looks promising.

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