Every bit of me is tired tonight!
After I made Jeff walk the boring beach (haha – sure he enjoyed but no mountains to slog up) he really wanted to do a ‘real’ walk… so we went back to Roland to climb the other side.
We went up the track we avoided last time (you know, because it kinda went straight up)
Oh. My. Giddy. Aunt!!
I cannot seem to capture how steep this track was… and it went on and on.
And on.
And when we got to a cross path Jeff insisted that it was going to now level out.
We got this:
Yeah that’s the path and it is NOT level!
I think it was another hour of still going up but with the added bonus of rocks/boulders to haul my backside up and over.
Can I add it was really wet weather too?? And foggy.
So we were going to do all this and fail to get rewarded with a view!
Did I mention it was wet?
I couldn’t have been wetter if I had jumped in a river!
Eventually I fell into a mud puddle and got Hangry (It was past 2pm and we hadn’t stopped for lunch)
I used up my quota of creative swear words but I would have to say it was a mongrel of a climb. When we return to Roland, I know I won’t be taking that path up!! (On the up side, I am pretty sure my bottom is a LOT skinnier today!!)
Everything is spooky and cool in the mist though, so it was pretty – even with limited visibility.
The mountain that you can’t actually see that we were climbing was Mt Van Dyke. Its alongside Mt Roland.
We had a small water crossing…
We finally reached the crossroad part where we were last week, where we could sit and eat – and then blissfully go DOWN!
I could better appreciate how beautiful the mist made the scenery look!
Well… I am off to face-plant my bed.
If you don’t see me here tomorrow its because I didn’t bother moving for 24 hours! (that or I COULDN’T move for 24 hours)
I actually have a spectacular amount of work to somehow get through between now and leaving the country.
Why I am prancing about on another beach adding countless images to my backlog of photos to be post-processed I really don’t know.
Oh well… I never claimed to be bright!
We drove over to the west side of Tasmania today to take a walk down from West Point along the fairly rugged coastline.
It wasn’t even windy (much) but the waves were large and constantly pounding the sand. It was pretty fabulous.
I was in total awe of the kelp! It was MASSIVE!!
And there was a lot of it
I totally wanted to back the car up as close as I could and just fill the back with it!! However, I didn’t even broach that subject with Jeff. Car is still new to him and we aren’t even allowed to sweat on the seats (Yes -we have towels to sit on when we finish our walks. haha)
We were loving the rocky landscapes, the dunes and the stretches of sand.
Up in the dunes we found a number of midden sites – created by thousands of generations of Aboriginal people who lived there. Its amazing to still clearly see these areas.
We found a fabulous bunch of rocks that were practically rainbow coloured! It was hard to believe they were natural.
Well… thats a few of the many images I took today. It was a beautiful walk – and nice to go somewhere a bit different, even though I think Jeff was disappointed we didn’t walk up a mountain for 5 hours!!
Tomorrow I totally have to start working through my ‘To Do’ list for Texas! Really!!!
Hello – another day, another mountain!
It was a fairly big day – a couple of hours drive to the start of our destination, then about six and a half hours hiking!
We got back in the (almost) dark so I didn’t get a photo of the amazing looming presence of Mt Roland from the bottom.
We did 17.71kms (to be precise) and an elevation of 820mt!!!
(Guess we will all sleep incredibly well tonight)
‘We’ consisted of Jeff, Rosemary, Fiona and myself.
It was a pretty walk up. (and up!)
(and up)
Ahhh – a stop for a bit of trail-mix. Good way to re-energise!
We finally came out onto open plains which was lovely. The sun even put in an appearance!
Still a little way to go to make it to the very top
A lucky find! Pepper berries! We stopped for a while and collected a whole heap! We knew we were going to run out of daylight so we couldn’t stay and pick for too long, but Rose and I got a good little stash each to now dry and use!
Happy Rosemary collecting pepper berries! (Luckily I don’t travel without multiple spare ziplocks. Never know when you will find nice shells/rocks/food)
Not far to go now!
The final climb was a rock scramble -up some impressive boulders!
The very top!Was in a t-shirt most of the day – started to cool off at that point!Yay us!
Then it was some showing-off time
The views were just so fabulous! As always – worth the effort!
Getting back down the boulder-scramble was slightly nerve-wracking at times!
Always some great little things in nature to admire on these hikes
On our way down – the afternoon light on the mountain was lovely.
We got back to the car just on dark! Lesson learned. Next time start earlier or bring a torch!!
I have a heap more photos – but these are all I managed to post process to at least write a little story before face-planting my bed!
(I tell ya – I am nearly ready for the Grand Canyon with all this walking!)
Hello – slightly tardy with this post – my internet connection dropped out last night and I was too tired to sit up waiting to see when it would drop back in again!
Not that I had anything momentous to share. I did a lot of housework mostly… Then as a reward I took myself off on a hike as I hadn’t been for a number of days and was feeling a bit slack. (Jeff was sleeping off a nightshift)
It was a beautiful day – too nice to be inside all day with a vacuum cleaner!
I put the gaiters on – bit safer since I was hiking alone… emphasised by coming across another tiger snake – only a baby.
Mind you they reckon its worse to get bitten by a baby tiger snake than an adult – no venom release control
Nice looking little fellow and it did the right thing and slithered off out of my way without getting cranky at my presence
Some wattle out at a weird time!
There you go – something cute and furry, not scaly and deadly. A young wallaby.
And there is a wallaby-bottom!
Anyway, got to go get dressed and toodle over to Devonport to collect my sister who is planning to arrive soon and stay with us over Easter! Yay! Can’t wait to drag her all over the mountains with us to show here in real life where we have been lately!
Hello!
Finally got to some of the cooking that is lurking about on my list!
Two packs of raspberries turned into jam today.
The freezers are full to the brim so taking anything out to cook is a good thing!
I did two batches – as anyone who cooks jam knows (unless they have some tricks I don’t know about) jam doesn’t set if you cook it in large quantities! My upper limit is 3lb (Using Nanna’s old scales of course)
I don’t use anything but the jam, sugar and lemon juice.
Looking forward to my toast tomorrow morning.
Got a bit more done in the herb garden. Collected a bagful of fennel seeds! Although getting the plants out will require a shovel – the roots hang on!
Time to tidy the feverfew
A rogue something or other has popped up in the layered garden I made but never planted anything in. I think it may be a pumpkin. Way too late, but I will let it have its fun. Looks happy enough.
The thick layering of newspaper in this patch has been extremely effective in stopping weeds.
The salvia has exploded again! I can never get over how it bounces back after pruning it to the ground each season!
My hydroponic rose surprised me with a pretty bunch today. (I only call it that because the poor thing lived in a barrel of water for two years while I procrastinated about where to plant it! It clearly had a will to live)
The chooks doing the dishes
I went to collect eggs… got sidetracked by the tomatoes. I needed a bigger basket, so will have to go back tomorrow and comb the plants more thoroughly… I just picked the obvious ones this evening.
We also squeezed in another hike this afternoon as it had been a few days since our last one. I had the camera out for the inland part of the walk with the longer lens as every time we have been lately we have seen at least one tiger snake and several wallabies.
Clearly a camera is a good animal deterrent – no snakes and not one bouncy thing to be seen! Annoying!
Oh well… it was a beautiful, if somewhat hazy, afternoon!
Pretty unusual hey? Not one click on the camera shutter today. That feels a bit weird to tell you the truth!
I was running about a lot – errands plus it was Jeff’s b’day that I was grossly under prepared for because we discussed this a few weeks ago – we decided on getting some hiking tents later in the year when the finances had recovered.
Then the whole fancy couple of nights away happened for my birthday.
So I dashed into town to pick up something I had been thinking to get him for a while. (Chromecast so he/we could watch Netflix & such on the normal telly, not his little tablet! Once he woke from night shift and worked out what it was he was pretty rapt. )
I also baked a cake. (as one should do)
***
So – I stumbled across some information about clearing US customs that reported about people being requested for their mobile phone and other devices along with their passwords for inspection.
Is it going to look really dodgy when I say I don’t own a mobile (cell) phone? Smart or otherwise? Or an ipad or anything similar?
In fact – is anyone else left out there that doesn’t run their life from their mobile phones?? Is it just us and Ruby?? haha
Seriously. Would love to know if any of you cope with life without a mobile phone and why.
I have had them in the past, but never really used them very well. In the end it was a drain on money for something I have easily lived without for quite a few years now.
Being mobile-phone-less you notice the phone habits of others more keenly. Bit like being the only non-smoker in the room!! Some people have to attend to calls/messages/notifications really frequently which makes normal conversation with them quite disjointed.
I get all my messages and info via my PC at home – which isn’t even a laptop! lol.
So when we step outside the room, the house or the property we are really free! I like that!
Anyway – sorry for the lack of pretty colours in my post. I will put in a better effort tomorrow for sure!
Hello!
How has everyones week started?
The last couple of days I have been trying to work through some essential food processing tasks among other things to get back on track.
Unfortunately it seems my list is getting longer and not shorter!
Yesterday I got to the corn. Tonight I made chicken sweet corn soup with some of it and it was pretty good!
The chooks were really happy as they got the cobs to play with!
They are totally bored of the tomatoes, but the corn is still a very exciting treat!
Yesterday the stall made $5!!
*Shrugs* its $5 I didn’t have before.
Today was much more impressive… $25! One lady I invited in as she showed interest in some other things, so we went around the garden with her little boy picking carrots, herbs, chillies – I don’t put everything out there as I just have to deal with it if it doesn’t sell.
While it doesn’t look much – there is an awful lot of tomatoes in those 4 containers!! I got all the manky tomatoes – ones that were going a little funny or had been nibbled on (Basically anything not being sold to passers by) cut out all the dodgy bits and made up a pasta sauce (Along with my capsicums, onion, garlic & herbs)
Just got to find room to get them into the freezer. They will be great to have when we no longer have the fresh produce.
I did a small amount of actual gardening.
This has been driving Jeff mad – my collection of dead sunflowers and sweet peas.
I wanted to collect seeds so I needed time to get to it – ripping things out is easy. Collecting the seeds, more tedious!
Pip was my cheer-squad
Goofy Cat
Anyway, it was a start. Next is to collect the fennel seeds and pull all those up – they are getting a bit messy too.
Actually everything is messy right now!!
This afternoon I went up to see my cousin, Fiona and return the camping/hiking gear that her family was generous enough to lend us! It was great using their stuff and deciding what gear we want to invest in to continue this hiking thing!
On the way home I was lucky enough to see a pretty nice rainbow -so I actually stopped the car to get out and get a few shots.
Seriously – I am such an A to B person when driving. I hate stopping!!
But I think it was worth the pause to admire!
Hello!
We have been running about doing boring but necessary things today. Not so bloggable. (OK – the visit to Ruby and Margie with coffee and cake wasn’t at all boring but I didn’t have my camera with me!!)
Neither have I had a chance to post process our last days hike on the Overland.
Just thought I would speed blog tonight by telling you a bit about the campsites and their facilities.
The huts varied quite a bit in size from location to location, but they were all really sturdy and comfortable.
Inside there was a large area with tables and cooking areas for people wanting to prepare food and eat inside at normal tables
Even people who stayed in their tents made use of the huts to store their packs away from marauding possums or just out of the weather. Plenty of clothes/tents/shoes were stored in the dry.
Inside was a comfortable place and fun to get to know fellow hikers.
Each hut had a room or several rooms dedicated to the generous sized sleeping platforms. Quite a number of the hikers opted to solely use the huts for sleeping rather than setting up tents each night. Tents were still a required part of your kit though – space in the hut is not guaranteed, and is also a safety factor in case you get caught out in the weather and have to make an emergency camp somewhere.
Any roof surface had a catchment to rainwater tanks. This was drinking water, and the tanks that had a grease trap under them (pictured above) was the place you brushed your teeth and washed your dishes.
Some people filtered their water – others (like Jeff and myself who regularly drink our own unfiltered rainwater) didn’t bother.
Each hut (except the first) had tent platforms for the campers. Chains along with extra ropes helped secure the tents. We were dubious about using them at first but then found them quite convenient – as sitting on the platforms, sorting your pack and gear was a lot less messy than in the damp muddy grounds fending off leeches.
Also, almost all the huts had a helipad. Used for bringing in supplies and removing the toilet waste. Also for emergency airlift in case of accidents and that kind of thing. (and the perfect platforms for star gazing too!)
And that brings me to the long-drop dunnies!
Composting toilets
No flush long drop composting toilets (dunny if you want the Australian colloquial term) were what you had available and really – they weren’t at all bad.
Ok… the older one at the first camp had an eye-watering ammonia smell that stayed with you for at least 15 minutes after leaving… however the one pictured above had no smell whatsoever!
Leftover food or any compostable item was to be put down the toilet. No feeding the wildlife and any rubbish you take in – you take right back out again with you. It was amazing – in the whole trek we came across no rubbish at all! People were clearly doing the right thing.
Once full – these containers of waste material get airlifted out and used as landfill elsewhere.
Yes I left the seat down for the photo (You’re welcome – I figured there was only so much information you needed)
But as you can see – pretty simple and clean.
Barrels of rice hulls were set in each toilet, so after doing your thing, you were meant to put one scoop of husks down the long drop. It helped dry the matter out and speed up the composting process.
Each lot of toilets had their own little proverb or poem – all poo or wee related!! I wish I had realised this earlier as I would have gotten photos of them all. Especially the one about the Wombat Poo which was quite amusing.
Something to get next time I suppose.
I also noticed that the water tank information signs also had a water – related proverb on each one too.
The one I remember said “Thousands of people have lived life without love, but not one has lived without water.”
It’s not all roughing it – you can pay the private operators 2-3 grand and not worry about carrying food and sleeping gear. They had their own huts – mattresses on the platforms and dinner cooked for them each night, wine included, and hot showers!
Talk about living it up!! 🙂
Still… if you have the money it makes the adventure physically accessible for older people who wouldn’t be able to carry what we did and rough it as much.
It just meant we met a wider variety of people out on the track and their guides were friendly and very generous with their information (and at one point – chocolate!!) mmmmm
Hope you enjoyed a little insight as to what facilities were available to us during our hike!
Yesterday I started the day with removing a bird from the house. Today started with a tiger snake (baby) at the back door!
Things are never normal!
I have been quite busy. Rachel is still staying with us, garden and cooking to be done. But I have nearly finished sorting the day one photos of the hike and am looking forward to being able to start sharing the Overland Track story with you.
Yesterday we all felt a bit odd without tramping about for km’s on end with 20kgs on our backs! We really felt we needed to keep this active momentum going, so we took ourselves off to Anniversary Bay for a quick two hour hike.
We kept it totally civilised though with a proper tea break on the beach using our new-found coffee making skills to have a hot drink and a piece of cake.
While in the US I think I will be getting a chance to go to the Grand Canyon with my friend and do some hiking, so I totally have to keep the fitness up and hopefully shed a kilo or two more.
Does anyone else see a fox??First time to see bluebottles washed up on the beach here! You DON’T want to tangle with these!
The stall went out the front today, but only took in $5. It rained so didn’t induce people to stop and browse. Its still raining steadily now.
Time for bed for me… I am fading quickly at the end of the day lately!! Must be all the fresh air!
Hello!
Wow – today was meant to be relaxing!!
I don’t think I am relaxed.
I am about to dive off to bed, but wanted to speed blog and say “See ya” for a week!
Thank-you for all the well wishes!
Apart from running about on last minute shopping errands, saying toodle-oo to Margie & Ruby and making $21 on my stall… doing the final pack was the aim
Its amazing how little you thought you had started with, then how much you decide to take out of that little amount and STILL end up with 18kgs!!
Taking away food for the moment and concentrating on culling clothes even furtherAll clothes – including jacket have been squashed into the green compression bag!! Not bad.
Every ounce counts. We wanted deodorant…
That will be enough and if not – too bad! 🙂
Toiletries – both our toothbrushes, toothpaste, facewasher, cotton buds, deodorant and medication. Soap is in dish washing kit.
Seriously – I don’t know how I am going to cope without my hairbrush and make-up!! … Oh wait… snicker – I was built for this!
Food!! Left to right. We ditched the cup-of-soup packs. We didn’t ditch the chocolate.
Coffee, sugar, powdered milk, beef jerky (home made)
Breakfast. Top two packs are mine. Weet-Bix. Other packs are Jeffs muesli mix
Dinner – dehydrated vegetable mixes with two minute noodles and curry beef with rice.
Muesli bars – for snacks
Lunch – pita bread which will have mayo, relish, tomato & cheese
More compact packing with less packaging.
What you take in you take out.
My bag is chokkas! Had to leave one lens behind.
Jeff’s bag and mine are about the same weight. He has the tent, I have most of the food. My advantage is that my pack will lighten daily!!! Cool!
Right! Don’t miss me too much. Hopefully if all goes well I will be back in a week with a ridiculous amount of photos to share!
