First chance to get away once lockdown eased, thought I'd give it a crack. Drove up over the Black Spur, spectacular with the light coming up. Headed off from Cooks Mill campground just on 9:00 thinking it would be about 4 hours or so base on the existing FKT. Didn't understand that Strava elapsed time under reads when you are going slow in the very technical terrain so I underestimated the time it would take.
Messmate track was pleasant, a few fallen trees from the recent storms. Wells cave track was fun with a little free climbing. I didn't enjoy the Razorback track, the trail was well marked if you were coming the other way, but a little easy to loose going clockwise. It tended to drop off to the left at the large rock spines, except when it didn't and dropped off to the right. Not so bad once I realized how it was laid out. Very slow going in places with a rocky goat track along the ridge, difficult foot placement.
The trail became easier as it approached the South Jawbone/Farmyard area. After visiting the South Jawbone I turned left a little too soon and headed back up to the ridgeline then had to drop down again to the North Jawbone trail. Just happy to be on trail not working along the broken rock. Back up the the ridgeline and more goat track. Lovely day, stunning views. Started to meet people coming the other way.
Took 2 liters of water, and ran out on the way down from Neds peak. Refilled a flask in small creek that flowed down from Little Cathedral, so used 2.5 liters in total. Had some corn chips before starting, took a couple of tortillas with peanut butter to eat. Seemed OK, most of the trail was low speed so not working hard at all, more technical than physical.
Descent from Neds peak was on a bit of a gravely trail, much more suited to uphill rather than downhill. I'm thinking that you would get the best use of the terrain by starting at the Sugarloaf saddle car park and going anti-clockwise, then you can move fast on the Messmate trail, do the majority of the flat ground early and climb the gravely trail. Only problem is the Wells cave segment would be a descent instead of an ascent.