800m. Sword Grass = 8 hrs. of Heck!
Some more Outward Bound stories - from the 30 day sojourn when I was 17-18.
First day and we got out our maps and compasses, took a bearing and struck out for our first camp. Easy, we'll follow this ridge then go down to an old forestry track, follow that to the main road, cross and bushbash for a couple of kays. About 8 km. all up - piece of piss, maybe 3 hrs. including lunch.
8 hrs. later having been slashed and sliced whilst struggling thru the really dense Sword Grass from the top of the ridge to the bottom we finally found the track and thought "Fuck it!" and decided to make camp on the track as it was getting dark & the sword grass basically grew up to the edge of the track. Any bushy or sane person will tell you that sleeping in middle of the road (no matter how remote) is not a good idea.
We built large fires at each end of the camp and had 4 hrly watches posted all night. Sure enough a little after 0500 the ranger came barreling down the track, stopping with a skid just in time. He was looking for us as the OB coordinator had radioed him telling him that we hadn't made our campground. He laughed heartily at our tale and tried not to look too amused at our numerous cuts, scrapes and grazes. We were not amused, remember kids - machetes won't just help kill zombies and make you look like a psycho.

When we were dropped off we were each given a bag of TVP and a bag of rice as emergency rations - otherwise we were to rendezvous with food drops at different stages of our journey because fuck carrying around a months worth of food - this ain't Everest we were doing.
One of the food drops was supposed to be buried under some kayaks on the beach of an inlet (which we were to paddle across). Upon arrival we found no food drop and no kayaks. We checked our bearings and verified we were in the right place. A couple of people scouted a km. or 2 along the shore either way to double check whilst the rest of us made camp. Turns out the previous group hadn't returned the Kayaks and then hadn't stuck around to receive and safely bury the food drop - thanks guys.
If any of you have eaten tvp plain before you'll understand just how much we relished our first of 4 or 5 nights of rice-o-sludgie. Think: the taste & texture of wet minced cardboard with rice. Toptip - if you go on OB, take some of those tomato sauce sachets, chicken salt or steak seasoning. Just in case.
It will make you a god amongst (hungry) men.
The following morning we basically swam with full packs (many not waterproofed) across half the inlet to get to higher ground and continue our trek. Did I mention it was a cold, wet winter down south?
(Misery McUglywife an attention seeking sociopathic fuckstain., Mon 2 Apr 2012, 1:43, 2 replies)

Even a sachet of salt and pepper can make bland food taste nicer
And yes -sword grass is a fucker.
(mr-lizard Hell's teeth man!, Mon 2 Apr 2012, 19:45, closed)

Tell me about it.
Nuking it from orbit is the only way to be sure.
(Misery McUglywife an attention seeking sociopathic fuckstain., Mon 2 Apr 2012, 20:41, closed)