Lisa – Page 20 – Head in the Clouds

Windermere

So… where we left off…
With the lake in sight!

We say hello to this rock every time we do the Overland now…

Hello Rock!
And hello to Lichen too…

And I also greeted this dead tree which has the coolest twisty form

Back to walking the track now that I am done being sociable with inanimate objects…

We always meet a bunch of really nice people while on the track – this trip was no different!
A Mother and Daughter team (Hi Beck and Ciara if you’re reading this) – They were really friendly chatty people (oh apart from early morning… most of us were taking a while to wake up properly haha) We had some excellent chats when we caught up at the huts or on the track (As they would usually overtake us)

Another friendly group was a family of five – actually from a town close to where I grew up! (Hello to Louise and Geoff if you are also reading this!)
The Dad worked at the university I had attended many years ago and it was fun recalling some of the names.
The Mum was amazing – you should have seen the food! She had spent months prepping meals. Even desserts!!
Their children were all young adults and really lovely people.

I went swimming in the lake with another group of younger hikers after we had reached camp and set up our tent.
Despite the cooler day, I was really surprised at the water temperature up there. I expected I’d dip in, get snap frozen and need to hop straight out.
I watched Steph go in first and when she didn’t turn blue – I decided to get brave and follow.
It was gorgeous! We spent about half an hour out there swimming about.
Was nice to wash the salty sweat off too!!

Windermere is the next location to get a new hut (Along with Kia Ora)
It was kind of weird listening to building noises way out there.
We walked past the site – I am sure it will be amazing when done but of course looks a bit ‘not wilderness’ at the moment

We set up our tent and sorted things out.
Dinner was the veggie mix and noodles – I partook in a greater amount that night.

Jeff had brought his tablet along and we listened to an audio book before bed each night (Lighter than us both bringing books… plus I read too quickly so I’d be carrying about dead weight before long!)

Nice to get a new pass and add to our Overland Pass Tag Collection!

DAY THREE!!
Awesome! It was cold, rainy and foggy! Bring out the gaiters – my kind of hiking weather!!

Hilariously there were only two other groups left when we got up!
Everyone panics about the 17km day ahead and scarpers early!

Beck and Ciara were still getting sorted and another couple hadn’t even woken up yet.
By the time we got on the track, the early risers from the previous hut had already got to Windermere and were pushing on to Pelion in a ‘double’
I think 17km in one go is enough.

Day three – Hi Jeff!!
The track gets nice and rugged

All the colours in the rain and mist look much richer than in the hot sun

I think eventually we were just walking through rolling clouds

Definitely gave the hike a bit of atmosphere!

I honestly love the track between Windermere and Pelion! Its like you really get your money’s worth that day!
The track changes so much along the way, in and out of forests, out on plains.
Its just so enjoyable!

The track does pose footing challenges but again we got through without falling over anything…

The greenery in these sections is so pretty!
Very tangled

Anyway, I’ll continue the trek to Pelion soon… thats all the photos I have sorted thus far!
Will be back in a day or two to continue
Hope you are all having a lovely week!
Cheers!

Walking and Wildflowers

Today (day two) couldn’t have been more different.
We were told the forecast was to be hot like the first day (yipes) so it was a lovely surprise to wake to the misty skies.

Today is a short trekking day – only 7.8kms and none of that straight up a mountainside nonsense. (Yesterday was 10.7km)
We left Waterfall Valley and were headed to Windermere

We rested quite well the night before, grabbed brekkie and headed off on the wrong track haha. The lovely hut volunteer called us back and redirected us. (The track out was different now that they upgraded the hut)

Hi Jeff…

Today I had more time to appreciate the abundance of pretty little wildflowers everywhere

A lot of this section of track is boardwalk so a lot less fatiguing than the rocks of yesterday

Not saying I was much faster though… just a whole lot more relaxed!

I love seeing the path disappearing… makes me feel the need to see what is around the corner or over the hill

So pretty too!

I remember going down this path with Fiona a few years back in a blizzard! All the bushes and trees covered in snow!

Loving the flowers

So tiny too

Little skinks like to sit on the boardwalk. Must be nice and warm

I always worry about accidentally stepping on one! Mostly they fling themselves off the boards when you get close though

I stop a lot…

But its worth stopping and looking

Despite the cooler day, I was pretty keen to go for a swim somewhere…

It would get coldish and a bit windy and I would be like… nah. No swim.

Then we’d be all hot and muggy and I was all in for a swim again…
It was the raging debate in my head for most of the way

There is a small side trip to Lake Wills where you can swim. We encouraged some other walkers to go… then we decided not to ourselves!
Luckily later on I heard they really enjoyed their swim and the side trip

And a snap of my beloved Pin Cushion Plant…

Such an amazing plant

Everything gets a bit wide open for a while! Such vast views!

Back to a bit of a rocky path

Not sure if you can see from this but some fairly steep down bits!

No-one fell down…

And there is the lake which is near the huts! We don’t have far to go.
(I went swimming in that lake despite the cooler weather and so glad I did! Stayed in the water for about half an hour! Wasn’t cold, just beautifully refreshing!)

Anyway, will finish this tomorrow or the next day!
Cheers!

Still Trundling

Hi Again!
Back with the remaining photos from our first day on the Overland Track.
I don’t think I have a lot of commentary…

Just a bunch of track photos… So easy just to drink in the beautiful views that surround us

I think this next photo was a mistake… I don’t remember taking it, but it does show the challenges of the track at times. It gets a bit harder to navigate the rocks when you get tired. But at this point we were not doing too badly overall – no-one fell down anyway!

Oh… Ok.. I do remember kind of falling down, but a sturdy bush stopped me from hitting the deck fully!

Back out of the trees

Looking back

The afternoon sun with the puffy clouds made for pretty light for landscape photos!

A good excuse to stop frequently… take a drink and a photo!

Is Barn Bluff getting any closer?

Emergency shelter… looks a bit space -like doesn’t it?
This is an extremely exposed stretch of the walk, so they installed this pod a few years back.

Bits of boardwalk again… a bit of leg relief

The views along this stretch are so good… seem to go forever

Hi Jeff!

Getting him to turn and pose (photo for the folks back in Canada!!)

Not long now to the descent into Waterfall Valley

(above) Looking back

Down into the vegetation

Nice to go down and annoy a different set of muscles

And here we are! Waterfall Valley Hut!
I am miffed now that I didn’t take time to photograph the new hut properly
But at the time I really didn’t care haha… so sorry!!
The structure at the front is not the hut, but the one in the distance.
Its amazing. Big eating area, three bunk rooms.
Nice new loos around the back.
And new camping platforms

After sitting down here I was pretty sure I wasn’t going to get up again.
Ever

(Next morning view from platform below)

I am also annoyed with myself for not getting decent photos in the hut… the big windows are amazing and show the view of Barn Bluff beautifully…
I was waiting for the morning light as it was meant to be another hot sunny day but of course… not to be!

Thats the best I’ve got sorry!

We had a bit of dinner and headed to our tent after a sponge bath and a change of clothes (I can’t even begin to describe how amazing THAT feels!)
I brought along some PJ pants to wear post hiking.
My Mum gets me cool PJs and these were perfect for the hike

I admit we felt a bit pleased with ourselves for actually making it to the first hut after agonising so much about the whole endeavor at the start of the day.
Pretty sure we slept well that first night!!

zzzz
Cheers!

False Start and Nearly No Start!

Hello!!
Hmmmm perhaps I should have tilted that photo a wee bit.
Never mind.
So… we were up before 5am last Monday to drive down to Lake St Claire to drop off our car at the finish point, then drive back up to Cradle.
One of my lovely cousins leant us her car so we could do a car shuffle (they were travelling down to Cradle later to collect it)
In itself that’s a big day as you’re looking at about 8 hours on the road driving.

This was actually the day before our official start date on the Overland.
The plan was to collect our passes then hike up to Scott-Kilvert hut for the first night, which is part way down the track, then start officially the next day.

It was HOT! We aren’t used to hot anymore.
We’d booked at this time of year to accompany friends on the journey… but they bailed out and we didn’t really think to postpone. Just stuck with the dates we took.
March/April is our preferred time.

I struggled right from the start. (Can you tell? My photos are STILL crooked haha) The heat was a killer, the early start, a nice dose of anxiety and of course with my foot – not quite as fit as I would have liked to have been.

In the end I just felt awful. I pushed on for a while (because I am stubborn) but we rounded a bend and I saw where I had to go really steeply up and my face must have etched out this picture… Jeff said he hadn’t ever seen that look before and took it upon himself to bail out and go back before heat stroke became a ‘thing’

Very luckily we found a place to stay… (I had looked but nothing was available when I was trying to book a week earlier)
So we got a better nights sleep and set off for round two the following morning – our official start.

So…off we go again. Back on the bus to Ronny’s Creek to try again.
Even though we were on the track earlier, it was still drainingly hot and hard work.
I was looking forward to getting to Crater Lake so I could jump into it.
I wasn’t full of energy, but today it was Jeff that struggled.
He is super fit and ready for this but he just couldn’t get it together mentally or physically! We think the recent booster shot had something to do with that.
We were at the Lake for probably 30 minutes in fierce debate on whether to continue or not!
The biggest problem with going back was transport. Our car was at the finish line and we don’t own phones to just call people to come on a rescue mission… apart from the VERY big ask that would be. And around here? Buses aren’t a ‘thing’
(OK yes, it also would have been a pretty solid ego blow haha)

Finally Jeff said “Lets just go”
I had actually no idea if he meant forward or back – in the end of course… it was onward and upward.

I didn’t have the camera out until we got to the top of Marions and let me tell you… that was one miserable hard slog that day! (The camera is heavy and I didn’t want to think about it dragging on my neck until I had done the worst of it)
You’ve seen the photos before… you know what that climb looks like (if you are new to this blog… link to photos of going up Marions is here )

Basically I go 10-20 steps and stop. Rinse – Repeat. Might not win any land speed records but it gets you there in bite sized pieces.

We sat for a while and had more to drink and a snack and then continued on.

It wasn’t until this point that we both felt quite a weight (metaphorically) off our shoulders and knew we could really do this!
Was amazing the difference.
Of course the camera had to come out – because if I didn’t use it I might as well have shoved a 2kg paperweight into my pack!!

Across the top towards the base of Cradle… it varies between boardwalk and rough stone ground.

Every water way is a refill in our bottles.
A lot drier up there than usual of course. (Except us… we were puddles of sweat.)

I do like trundling across this part.

(Barn Bluff in the background there… I was pretty positive that there would be no extra mountain climbing for us this trip!)

There was a bit of cloud about and it made the hiking that little bit easier when the sun dipped behind them.

I never fail to feel the awe of this mountain when I am right beside it.
It just looms and makes me feel a little bit insignificant in the grand scheme of things. (But not in a bad way)

Its odd to see this path without water! 3 out of the previous 4 times I’ve done this, its been under water and a lot of mud and rock hopping!

A quick look back

It was a pretty season for wildflowers

Starting to feel a lot more remote now as we look across the mountain ranges

No running water.

Most of the tarns up here were dry

A little bit of water in this one made for some nice reflections

I like the way the path disappears into the greenery here

We filled our bottles again here which was good as it was the last bit of running water we saw between here and the hut

We have a Sawyer Mini filtering bag and depending on the source, we will sometimes filter and sometimes not. But its a handy thing to have to make sure you are not drinking anything dodgy.
These bits of water were good for soaking our hats and heads before moving on.

Anyway, I will leave you here and hopefully work on some more photos tomorrow – you’ll get the whole trek in odd chunks this time instead of neatly packaged into days!
Hope you are all having a lovely week so far
Cheers!

Home Again!

Hello!
We got back home at about 9pm last night… to a VERY happy Pip
He was at the kitchen window…
“Yowl”
“Hi Pip! Miss us?”
“Yowl”
“We missed you too!”
“Yowl”
“We’ll be in in a minute”
“Yowl”
“Just getting our bags”
“Yowl”

This was funny and tragic and all very loud.
It took about an hour before he toned down the howling.
But we got lots of cuddles and purrs and he stuck to my heels like glue when not in my arms!

We did the six days (opted out of the 7th day around the lake) in five and it was the most challenging Overland we’d done for a number of reasons.
But we made it and pretty pleased with ourselves.
Jeff was a hero this morning by getting up early and opening the sealed bags of hiking clothes and putting them through the laundry!
The only thing I would have wanted to do would be to set them on fire!

We’ve had a blissfully slow relaxing day, finishing off with a lovely dinner mostly from fresh home grown veggies (so good)
I’ve made a start on sorting/post processing photos so should be able to share all the little ‘ups and downs’ (literal and figurative) with you soon!

Cheers!

Hi – Still Here!

Hello hello!
Already 2022 is getting away from me!

Part busy, part distracted, partly unorganised! The usual!!

We’ve got our lovely friend Rachel with us at the moment – been so long since she has been here. We’ve fully relaxed and talked our heads off for 4 days!
Sadly have to pop her back up to the airport tomorrow

Then we have a day to put our final stuff together before heading off on the Overland Monday!!

So been doing some prepping for that (for example my muesli bars)

I was unsure about being able to go as I was worried I had a stress fracture in my foot.
Happily the xray says nope. The ultra sound did say I have most def. got plantar F. in my heel.
So I am doing certain things (shoe insert, stretching exercise and magnesium spray) to help take the edge off
Jeff will be more of the packhorse with our gear (bless his cotton socks) and I will take hiking poles this time!

So… I am not quite as ready as I wanted to be – fitness and pack carrying – but we aren’t running any races and just looking forward to getting back away in that beautiful country!

So… the zukes have started

And more

Something tells me 8 plants might have been overkill
At least something is growing really well!

We are bandicooting potatoes for most of our evening meals… and the hothouse cucumbers were producing one ready every few days.
Then the apple cucumber plants outside exploded

There are so many coming along and I’ve picked well over 10 so far. They are so lovely and fresh and sweet

So happy to get enough basil to do pesto!
Bliss

And the beetroot are going so well now… finally stocked up on my beloved pickled beetroot!

The corn is growing steadily too…

Things got a bit windy the other day… so some staking was in order!

A couple of new things on the soap front…

I trialled a ‘mantra swirl’ which was rather nice.

(used the orange essential oil)

And a slab mould soap using Kakadu Plum… it got messy as the mixture thickened too quickly, but the old chopstick swirled in the right way rescued it nicely

This really makes such a pretty pattern

And the I did another loaf using the oatmeal, milk and honey fragrance… used bubble wrap to make the honeycomb effect and sprinkled on some real oats

Well, thats all from me!
Big day of driving tomorrow… and hopefully slip in a beach walk in the morning!
Hope everyone’s 2022 is starting well.
Cheers

Black Bluff

Christmas Day 2021… and off we go. Thinking the peak at the back is where we are heading. We started out at Taylors Flats.

Everything started off nice and meandering… and flat-ish

Path ran parallel to the Leven River, so the sound was soothing

The track at the start was lovely and ferny

The weather was gorgeous… hot summers day.
We started out a bit late as we’d been on the phone doing Christmas Greetings to our Canadian Family.

Not that it mattered. Had no schedule to stick to

Got to this little stream… and there it is! The start of ‘up’

Doesn’t look too bad in the photo (From the comfort of my chair)

Merry Christmas Husband..

The track was easy to follow…

Once we moved up and away from the river, things got scrubbier and a lot hotter

Don’t forget to turn around and see how far you’ve come!!
This also shows things getting a bit steep!

Jeff is so much fitter than I am!!

Sweet summer flowers out everywhere

As we got nearer the top, there were so many more

Loved the colour of these leaves

Its like they are on fire.

That bluff still looks a long way off

Here we go… some good rugged tracks!

And looking back – these were hard on the legs and feet coming down

Still looks far far away…

Small rocky outcrops peeking through the bush

Again just turning to look back

You can see the flowers appearing more along here

Views…

Bigger views

Fluffy flowers (Sorry… sum total of my knowledge of the flora)

Red poker like flowers on spikey bush! (More fabulous clueless plant naming)

OK, yes. Its getting closer but that still looks like a lot of walking yet to go

Views are getting better and better

At this point we are keeping an eye out for a lake that is meant to be up here!

Its pretty hot and I am certain I am going to jump right on in

Heading downwards for a short stretch which was a relief to my legs

How pretty is this area?

Love the little wildflowers everywhere

And yes, I am putting in all the photos 🙂

Views AND flowers!

Where is that lake??

Seriously… has to be close now.

Lake!

Welcome to the most northern glacial lake in Australia

Actually its a glacial tarn… Anyway, see the lines on the water above?? Thats the wind ripping through the saddle and it wasn’t warm!

Beautiful though

Black Bluff looming over Paddy’s Lake

So… with the wind and temperature taking a bit of a dive and the water being… not warm, we woosed out of the swim and just paddled and wet our hair and filled the water containers

So beautifully refreshing!

Hey look! Jeff got me new hiking shoes!
They got a small workout before doing this trek but are lovely and comfy

And new socks…

OK…. What with the time in the day that we had left, we decided not to continue up to the top. We’d had a great day already so, time to head down.

A few dried strawberries to pep me up.

Easier to enjoy the views on the way back.

Burst of yellow at my feet.

Wouldn’t mind returning to get to the very top, but this wasn’t disappointing at all!

Of course… somehow I found some deep mud.

Such a great way to spend Christmas! Even if the cheese ham and relish buns were a bit downscale from a roast turkey… we were quite happy!

Cheers!

Smash…

Fun with a sledge hammer

The outside run of the chicken coop is in a sorry state…

Its been falling apart for a while – so I decided to give it a helping hand

Cutting all the old rusting wire off… carefully around the wisteria !
We plan on rebuilding it with some of the milled timber.
We will use the round treated pine posts as they are still in good nick, as well as the tin.
The timber is mostly rotted and bound for the ever growing bonfire piles

Er… slowed up with a bit of necessary weeding!! The duck yard is a mess!!

I am going to have to take out the post you see at the front right – it is the post for the duck yard gate but its going to be too hard to work around. (Its concreted in so I might need some of Jeffs muscles to help)

The tin is buried a bit so I had to get the pick out to break the soil at the bottom. I didn’t have gloves so I’ll have to get back to the front lot of tin when I continue as it was a bit stuck. Some of the screws were a challenge! They’d been painted over so I had to break the paint seal to get them started on their journey back out of the tin and rotting wood!

I think this was a solid start. (Jeff was sleeping today)

I’d like to get a laserlite roof on this part of the chook run – will give them more shelter in the soggy weather and will stop the yard from becoming a quagmire in winter.
Oh… also smaller bird wire so we don’t feed as many sparrows.

The Inspector

The rewards!

On another note… check out the lovely Christmas presents from my sister Rosemary!
She has been making these fabulous cat vases… and I was lucky enough to get a pair… Cat and Kitten!

I love them!! Was nice to get some flowers in their tails today!
And from my niece I received this beautiful painting!
How gorgeous are the colours!
Its sitting in the sun room while I decide if I like it there where I see it when I walk in daily or if I can find a different great spot on the wall somewhere!
I adore home made presents (I am actually wearing a nightie right now that my Mum made me for Christmas but I don’t have a photo…. but it is super comfy. I love nighties!)

Well, thats day 2 of 2022 done!
Have a great week everyone
Cheers!

2022

Happy New Year to you all!!
Lets hope 2022 brings some really good stuff.

I’ve been too lazy to get around to post processing our Christmas Day hike, but above is the view from not quite the top of Black Bluff.
We actually didn’t summit as we left slightly later than planned.
Was a lovely lovely day out regardless… along with a bit of hard work!! (As mountains usually are)
I’ll aim to work on the photos this coming week.

More raspberries.
I’ve made more jam… I think I need to get into the kitchen tomorrow and make more instead of just filling the freezer

There is a little progress in the hothouse… some cucumbers making a move

Looks like a sunflower about to come out.
And I gave the tomatoes a really good pruning… some of the leaves were crazy big. Airflow will be better now and I tied them up better too

Random lillium

Carrots sitting up nicely

Couple of little zucchinis happening

Lovely hydrangea flowers out now

Excited about the beetroot

Lots of nice ones in there

Today I went out and pulled up the white garlic!

It looked ready…

A really decent harvest again

I put them out on the lawn to dry off a bit first… but of course being Tassie, might have been stinking hot for a fortnight, but garlic on the lawn?? Time to rain
So back into the wheelbarrow and under cover for now

I’ve bandicooted a few potatoes too… they really haven’t grown up into lush plants this season… but boy oh boy dont the new spuds taste Ahhhmazing!!

Now, the tomatoes need to get a wriggle on then I’ll be in heaven!

I’ve been obsessing about banana muffins lately too

We ate all of the above so I made more today… but put raspberries in them this time
Its well after midnight now and I am trying not to eat any otherwise I’ll need to hike more

I’ve started hiking with a pack now in prep for the Overland later this month.
Jeff has almost been daily hiking with a full pack all (last) year… so he will be able to skip across the wilderness.
I’ve got plantar F in my heel so I hobble a lot in the mornings and after I get up from sitting down esp. if I’ve been hiking or standing about in the kitchen for too long…
Going to make the hike interesting.
(Imagine someone hitting the base of your heel with a hammer… thats the first thing in the morning feeling!! Erk.)(I suppose thats why they invented anti inflammatory pills)