A Wild Start

Hello!
Well, here we are, Day 1. Apparently a bushwalkers alert was put out since the winds were pretty solid with 100km/hr gusts, rain, hail and snow.
So we all rugged up:

Actually it was the only day I didn’t wear my thermal pants… but I didn’t suffer too much. Was getting plenty of exercise to keep warm. Just couldn’t stop long!

I think my pack was about 18kg all up. I forgot to weigh it and me before we left! Bit miffed about that! I am telling myself now I have a much skinnier backside! 🙂

I was using Jeff’s pack – we have a few budget constraints so getting a new pack for me wasn’t on the essential list. I was pretty happy with it – carried it very easily and the only time I got sore shoulders was at the end of the two longest days (third and seventh). Fiona had a lot more trouble with her pack and it not fitting right, which was an ongoing issue for her.

All the views were gloomy with details looming out of the cloud and rain. It certainly had its own beauty that was quite different from other times we have been up here

 

Fitness wise I am pretty proud of us. We didn’t gallop about but we kept up a decent pace, despite the load and the fight against the winds.

We got to the top of Marion’s Lookout, but it wasn’t the weather to stop and there was no view to admire! The camera didn’t come out from my jacket much as it just got soggy… you can see the artistic rain smudges on these shots!

It was hard to find something dry to wipe the lens with!
There was water everywhere up there – and by this time we were heading pretty smartly to Kitchen Hut to get a bit of a reprieve from the wind, adjust Fiona’s pack and scoff the sandwiches that Jeff awesomely carried up for us.

The rain brought out the great colours of the mosses and lichens

At last Kitchen Hut loomed up into view and we were very happy to get inside.
We found Kim and Brod, fellow hikers who we had connected with through facebook by chance, already there.

It was great to start meeting the people who we would often meet on the track or in the huts of the evenings. We had no intentions of trying to camp this trip unless there was an emergency.

We enjoyed our sandwiches but had to get back out there and moving to stay warm. Jeff said the fond farewells and headed back towards a fire and a cuddly kitty.
Fiona and I headed back out towards Waterfall Valley Hut through some pretty intense wind and rain.

The Fagus has started turning its colours and was really beautiful to walk through

Basically when the rain dropped I had the camera out…

Occasionally the clouds lifted a little further for better views

I think it was around this point that we started getting snowed on which made me laugh. I said we’d get snow!

Lots of water, mud and rocks to trudge through!

Whoops! As awkward as that looked, Fiona didn’t fall off that rock!! We did fall on occasion though – the wind pushed us about a bit.
One of our fellow hikers actually got picked up by the wind, pack and all then got dumped back down!!! That’s a lot of weight so a bit scary what Mother Nature can throw at you (in this case unsuspecting hikers!)

Up on the exposed plains the rain and hail came in sideways and the camera got tucked away again – we really had to fight to stay upright on the way across.
Finally we made our way down and reached the hut, a bit shell shocked and soggy!

We changed out of our dripping gear and hung stuff around the heater. It might not have crisply dried everything but at least your clothes weren’t icy to put back on the next morning.
The bunks had big platforms for people to put their sleeping gear on. A few people braved the old hut and the hungry rodent (Well done, Angela, Martin & Paul) and the rest of us squeezed in here.

Nobody stayed up to party. In fact, pretty much every night people were tucked up and falling asleep by 7pm – a fact that we all laughed at ourselves over! Night falls earlier now and everyone has had a hard day, so as much sleep as possible seemed to be everyones aim.

Fiona and I had started earlier than most so made it in good time to the hut. People started trickling in – two dads with their kids arrived. One fellow and his daughter who were from Tassie and their Melbourne friends. The poor kids were little shivering puddles when they arrived! Mind you – they recovered well and did an exceptional job hiking the trail over the coming days!

Time to snuggle down into the sleeping bags and get as much sleep as possible for the next days hike!

And in real time – I have managed to catch a cold – went for an 8km hike today with a 12kg pack anyway (something about eating a scandalous amount of potatoes last night). Really feel its time to get to bed!
Hope you have enjoyed the start of the adventure!

Cheers