Solo Hiking

Well – I am back in one piece! Yay. Believe it or not I walked out yesterday morning, so completing the full track in five days instead of seven!
My legs may never speak to me again!! 😀
Very nice to be home with Jeff and Pip, a warm fire and a bed with a mattress that doesn’t run away!!

THE START:

Well… 5am and I was up (hardest part of the whole adventure I might add)
Sunday morning – my lovely cousin Fiona was at the gate at 6am to drive me to Cradle!
We started at Dove Lake and pretty much hiked straight up to Marion’s Lookout – shorter but oh so steep!! That 17kg was weighing heavily – but slow and steady – got to the top.
In the first 45 minutes we had wind, sun, rain, hail and snow.
Good start!!

Before we got to Kitchen Hut at the base of Cradle we had to plow through a couple of big snowdrifts. Hard work. Managed not to fall over!

We had a bite to eat at Kitchen Hut before parting ways. Fiona was heading back to sensible normality and a warm home while I continued on out into the sleet.
It was all very peaceful… although I did have an irrational moment of wanting to shed some tears and chase her down and say “Take me home, this was a stupid idea”
I worked through it … haha

I was keeping quite warm, despite the weather. I didn’t get the camera out for ages – then I told myself to stop being lazy, as I wasn’t carrying that extra 1.5kgs for nothing!!

The traditional first stop on the Overland is Waterfall Valley Hut. I was hoping I would have enough energy in me to skip that hut and go through to Windermere. I was planning at that stage to do the whole hike in 6 days rather than 7 so Jeff could collect me on Friday.

Waterfall Valley is 10.7km – happily I met a ranger walking in the opposite direction not far out of Waterfall Valley hut. He told me it wasn’t even 12.30 and said I’d make it to Windermere no problems, which was another 7.8km down the track. That gave me the confidence to keep trundling on – knowing I had lots of time left.

I got bursts of sunshine but mostly sleet and snow.

Wet and muddy feet were always going to be a ‘thing’

By the way… I only took my fisheye lens… so the photos will be a bit odd and a few more goofy selfies than I would normally inflict upon you 🙂

The colours in the rain up there always make things look so much richer.

Trudging up the duckboards.

My bandanna, even though not a scarf, was handy to wrap around my face and ears.
I actually had very little on as I get so over heated when hiking. I had my two merino tops – the t-shirt over the long sleeved top. Then the rain jacket – which is a shell only for the rain, not a warmth thing. (Although it does help with the wind a bit)
I didn’t have thermal pants either – just my hiking pants and rain pants over the top. I had extra, of course, in my pack but never needed them.

By this time of the day I was getting pretty tired. Up waaaaaay before my normal hours and a lot of walking – I was certainly starting to feel it in my feet and shoulders.
I was still enjoying it but I was going to be rather happy to see that hut!

You can see the icy sleet on my pack. It wasn’t the greatest weather, but after walking through what Fiona and I did a year and a half back… it didn’t seem so bad really!

I got into Windermere at about 3.30 – which wasn’t bad going I thought. (I kept asking people what the time was during the hike so I could get a sense of my progress)
I was about done in. The hut was crowded (lots of families and people like me taking advantage of the last of the no fee starting time)
I think people were surprised to see me as most of them had spent the night at the previous hut together.
Luckily there was a spare bunk, so I put my gear up there, changed into my night clothes, wolfed down my sandwich that I didn’t eat at lunch, then put myself to bed at 5pm! (Much to the amusement of one of the fellows I met who was hiking with his sister – he mentioned it at the end of the hike how he was impressed I could just go right to sleep like that. I said I think I passed out haha)

A dusting of snow overnight made the morning just beautiful.
I had no intentions of jumping out of bed and racing around with the melee of people. So I kept warm in my sleeping bag while everyone else was breakfasting and packing.
The next leg was to Pelion. Its a 16.8km day – with a fair bit of ‘up’ towards the end – so people get out on the track madly early.
Eventually I got up and made a cup of tea and had a muesli bar for brekkie, chatted to people as they left.
I was the last one out. So peaceful!

Mind you – I say last one out, but it wasn’t yet 8.30am, so really… thats early enough for me!

Despite the snow, it wasn’t that cold. I did start with my gloves on and rain coat, but eventually as the day wore on, they all came off.

This is me. Happy in the wilderness!

Anyway – I have had a slow paced day at home, went out to a lovely lunch with Jeff – and now I am pretty tired so going to hit the hay again!
Will be back tomorrow with a continuation of my ‘Day Two’

Cheers!