Update 4: The Tasmanian Overland Track
Originalyl sent May 18, 2018
It's been so long even I had to go back and remember where I left things!
And I've done enough that I'm going to try to split this into 2 emails, keeping to my last tactic of focusing on one adventure.
Just want photos, no text? As always: https://photos.app.goo
Up today: The Tasmanian Overland Track!
Last
time, I had a cracked frame. This took longer to get fixed than I
expected. While it was a free frame replacement it turns out when you're
also replacing your rear wheel, front cogs, drive train, and rear cogs
it's a bit of an expensive trip o the bike shop. Seriously sometimes it
feels like the front fork and handlebars are the only things to have
made it.
Oh, and my tent was in tatters, so were my shoes. But I was THERE.
I'd
had some dreams of hiking the Tasmanian Overland Track previously, but
figured it wouldn't happen this time around. Permits are notoriously
difficult to come by, except: I got lucky.
Kind of.
The
weather was about to turn pretty bad for a few days some some permit
spots opened up from people that were less hardcore (read: more sane.) I
of course nabbed one up, hopped on the 10 hour ferry to Devonport, and
then caught a bus up to Cradle Mountain, the start of the overland
track.
This isn't so bad! It's a little cold, but the weather is fine! I'm ready!
Of course, sometimes the weather report isn't wrong. Just a couple of hours later I learned a valuable lesson...
Rain can go sideways. Or up. Or whatever direction this chaos was.I'm pretty sure it was all of them.
I just realized my sunglasses are still on and definitely askew in this photo.
It was a pretty intense first day. The overland track is what I'd normally consider a 'glamping' type experience. You can go
out and camp in your tent, but you really don't have to. There are huts
designed to hold most of the walkers on the trail every day. Even if
you are camping there are nice, raised platforms for people to stay in.
Unfortunately, given the weather every single hiker that day chose to stay inside the hut.
I
think this created a pretty good bond inside the cohort of hikers that
left that day. We set up our wet-things shanty town. Ate some food.
Shared the war stories from the day and all slept in what was
essentially a giant cuddle puddles (there wasn't a spare centimeter
between sleeping pads)
Friends and enemies were born that day. And that night. It's amazing how quickly strong dynamics form being in close quarters.
The
second day was set up to be a shorter day, and myself along with a
small crew of the faster hikers in the group set off to skip a hut and
make it to the next further one, I would wind up hiking with different
fragments of this group for the remainder of the trip.
Reaching
the mid-point for the day (the hut I was planning on skipping) I saw my
first of a slew of rescue helicopters on the trail. I held up and
chatted with the ranger at the station there, who gave me the lo-down on
both the rescue helicopter and the people I'd be catching up to later
that day.
That's
when I learned about "The Americans" a group of 8 that were first-time
hikers. This name wound up sticking among everyone. They were a large
group of 8 that was both very cliquey and had never been on a
backpacking trip before. About half seemed to be having a lovely time,
and the other half were miserable and let everyone around know.
The
day wound up at one of the most beautiful huts I've seen in the back
country, and about 4x the size of the last one. It sits at a hub of
several trails in Tasmania so is sized to handle a larger number of
people. ( https://photos.app.goo.gl/sO
Now, two really cool things happened that day:
1. I saw my first wallaby
And they're as cute as you might expect
2. Tasmania is just wet enough to support crustaceans at high altitudes (ok, only ~300m/100ft)
What are you doing in the middle of the path, buddy?!
The
following day the weather was finally making a complete turn-around and
it was perfect. Aside from an early morning fog, things were looking
absolutely perfect for ascent of Tasmania's highest peak, Mount Ossa
(1617m/5303ft)
I'd met one other guy crazy enough to want
to ascend both Mt. Ossa and Mt. Pelion West (trailheads are right next
to each other.) and wound up spending the morning hiking with him.
French
guy, who had worked for IBM for most of his career. Amid downsizing he
managed to get a pretty sweet deal: "It's not so easy to fire someone in
France, so I negotiated a 2-year sabbatical"
Since photo space is always limited in these, here is only the mountain top from Ossa. The lakes
Actually a just a short distance below the absolute peak, I think these high mountain lakes are stunning.
The
diversity of the people on the trail always made me happy. There was an
older gentleman, Jeff, who wore an AT (Appalachian Trail) patch on his
jacket and had some of the most fascinating stories. Australian, but
said different words with different accents in English and was really
hard to pin down. He was the son of a dignitary and had grown up with
time spent in the UK and US primarily (hence the fascinating speech.)
There
was the 'mountaineer' from Sydney, who if you believed, Sydney was the
greatest city in the world. He made sure everyone knew he was a
mountaineer, and had been "very successful in business."
The
Dutch couple who had "only" taken 2 weeks of vacation last year so were
on a 2 month vacation currently. (We've really got to do something about
vacation in America)
To the lovely young couple that were
still in university (and I wound up sharing some whiskey with at the
terminus of the trail.)
Elevated walking track about 4 days in.
I also wound up at an animal sanctuary in Tasmania to see Wombats, Tasmanian Devils (and more!) all in the photo album
After
this, I actually decided to bail on Australia. I'd made it to Melbourne
and across the sections I intended to, and with only a couple of weeks
reamining on my visa it was important for me to go see the great barrier
reef. I moved on to Singapore and some other parts of SE and E asia
from here, but - I'll save that for the next email which will hopefully
only be a short time away!
Hope everyone is doing well, and I always enjoy hearing from you if you have the time to write a line back!
Best,
Jas
Comments
Post a Comment