Jeff Home

Pip and I are thrilled to have our Jeff back!
So proud he made it and did really well over the course of the week which was pretty challenging weather wise alone!

I left about an hour earlier than I originally planned and glad I did as it took 4 hours to get down to Lake St Claire!!
Wow… so many slow vehicles on the road. The caravans and RV’s were excessively slow due to the weather and the narrow steep winding roads. However they all turned out to let me pass as soon as they could. The cars were another matter. One of the last ones I got stuck behind was just an inconsiderate… (looking for a creative non-swear word) (ok… you insert one, too tired to do it myself and all the ones I used on him aren’t polite)
Seriously… 40km seemed to be the fastest he could go around a corner – mostly doing 60 in a 100 zone… but due to the curvy nature of the road and weather not many overtaking possibilities. As soon as a nice long stretch appeared – the miserable worm jumped on the accelerator which made my chances of getting by him impossible. Then he dropped back to 60. Grrrr
I understand people driving extra slow and careful on those roads with the weather. But there were plenty of places to pull over as the caravans did!
I finally got him even though he sped up again  – Had to push the poor Triton up to 130!!
I wanted to get to Jeff before nightfall!

I managed to get to Lake St Claire about 5 minutes after Jeff walked in! I got a very emotional hug from a VERY soggy husband!! The poor beggar was cold and wet through. The last day had been a very testing one for him.
A rat got into his day pouch and ate his last days rations, he had to sleep in the tent last night as the last hut he went to was over crowded – and he didn’t sleep. And the rain. So he was low on energy and very ready to be home!

I know he was really happy to see me, but I suspect he was even happier to see dry undies. haha

Most of the days despite the forecast I had been looking at, had been rain free. Jeff was pretty much first into each hut and had changed and eaten and got fairly early nights, then early starts.
He met a lot of nice people too.
Funny thing… the first day?? I pretty much met everyone (and chatted because I am like that) on the hike on the way back to the car on Monday. People kept rolling into Waterfall Valley, meeting Jeff and saying “Oh – you’re Jeff. I met your wife!” So pretty much like a bizarre form of Chinese Whispers Jeff worked out that I had made it back to Ronney Creek safely because the last girl into the camp said she met me for a chat at the end of the boardwalk not so far from the carpark!!

The rangers said on that first day there were sustained 60km/hr winds with 90km/hr gusts! No wonder we got blown off the pathways!! Happily it calmed down a lot after that first day.

The rivers and waterfalls were spectacular with all the rain. I can’t wait to see them in a few weeks!
No chance of running out of water up there at the moment!

Anyway – Jeff took my ’emergency husband rescue bag’ and got changed into clean dry clothes and felt a million dollars better. He said goodbye to some of his walking mates and we got into the car. I had a thermos of hot water, so made him a coffee, then he fanged through a few sandwiches and washed them down with chocolate chip bikkies!

It was a great trip home – swapping stories of the past week. It was still slow but just nice to be together (and warm and dry!)

Sorry no extra photos! You’ll have to wait until its my turn on the mountain!
Off to bed… ridiculously tired tonight!
Cheers
xx

Author: Lisa

A happy traveller through life! Right now living in NW Tasmania with a gorgeous Nurse-Husband, a fool of a Siamese Cat and several chickens. We love our fairly simple lifestyle of growing a lot of what we eat and enjoying the stunning surrounds of our little patch. View all posts by Lisa