2005-12-03

Allright... here's the plan.

Julia will be doing a 4 weeks 'Famulatur' down in Tasmania and will have another 4 weeks time to do some nice stuff and travel around the Island.

I will be joining her for these 9 weeks down there. 5 of which we will travel together and the other 4 (while she is working) I will have to think about.... maybe Australia... maybe not ;-)

Tilo

2006-01-14

We just confirmed out flights! Grat feeling ;-)

All in all we will have 5 weeks of travelling and hiking in Tasmania until Julia has to start working in Hobart for her Famulatur. After those five weeks I will take a flight to Melbourne with Virgin Blue and spend another 4 week somewhere around Melbourne. Just opened a seperate adventure category for my Australia trip. From here on it's 100% Tasmania ;-)

We'll let you know once things become more clearly... 

Tilo 

2006-08-02 

We are packed and ready to go. Our flight to Australia leaves tonight.

2006-08-05 to 2006-08-09

We got picked up by Cath and Trevis on Friday the 5th, which drove us from central Hobart to her and her husbands home in Molesworth.

The whole transfer from Germany to Tasmania took us roughly about 42 hours. Almost 2 days of endless hours cramped inside an economy-class plane seat, crowded airports and public transportation. But all that would have been fine would there not have been air-conditioning. The dry and cold air inside the planes and the airports pretty much finished me off. I spent the next 3 days coughing and sneezing mainly inside the house and even now, 5 days after out arrival, I still do not feel entirely well and fit for hiking. Julia's situation is not much better, having to care for me and having cought a cold now as well. We also had massive trouble with our sleeping rythem. The first 3 nights were almost unbearable because we lay awake from midnight on to finally fall asleep at 7 or 8 in the morning. Luckily that changed after those three nights and the only problem now seems to be my snooring... Although I can't confirm it's brutal nature due to the fact that I am usually asleep while snooring. But Julia has already taken counter-measures like Ohropax and seperate sleeping quaters.

We spent the first 4 days in Molesworth at Cath & Travis's place and used the time there not only for recovery and un-jet-legging, but also to buy a car. Right! It took us quite a while and some phone calls (bought a newspaper with car ads), but after having a look at some old hieps of scrap we finally found a car standing at the side of the road which had a huge sign "for sale" on it. After a closer look, it turned out to fulfill our requirements: Driving and under A$ 1000.

Cath and Travis had a look at it as well and after a look at the engine and a test drive we decided to spent the 600 Australian dollars the owner wanted for the car. It actually is a 1984 Ford Fairlane. One monstrosity of a car, roaring like a tank and with 20l per 100km quite thirsty (needs leaded fuel!). After some minor repairs and checks we slowly got to know the car and its character. And character it has! We called it "Hopper"... Mainly because it is just the opposite of a small, fast, agile grass hopper ;-)

We took Hopper on Monday to his first tour with us to the Mt. Field National Park and bought ourselves a national park licence there for 50$ which allows us to drive and hike in all of Tasmanias national parks for up to 2 months.

Being still not in good shape we just walked the Tall Trees Walk and further down to Russel Falls which took us about 45 minutes but pretty much finished me off.

Especially the huge (over 70m high) gum trees are amazing to look at, but also the rest of the flora and fauna are totally different from Europe. We are really looking foreward to finally starting our bushwalking tours in Tasmania.

Bongorong Wildlife Reserve

On Tuesday we went to the place where Cath workes. The Bongorong Wildlife Reserve. Absolutely amazing what kind of animals there are in Tasmania. Julia almost instantly fell in love with Ted, the wombat and had a hard time to part from Benjo the koala. But also the kangaroos did hold us for a while. They just enjoy it so much to scratch them under their chin. And we saw the devils of course. The Tasmanian Devil is quite a cute little fellow... Until he opens his mouth and tries to take a bite out of your shoe. They are purely carnivore and usually feeding at deat animals, eating everything including bones and fur. No need to tell you that these marsipules have great teeth and more power than any fighting dog with their jaws....

Port Arthur - Coal Mines Historic Site and Hostorical Site

2006-08-10

On Wednesday than we finally set off towards Port Arthur in the morning. Port Arthur is about 100km away from Hobart and easy to reach by car. Once on the Tasman Peninsula we took a side trip to the "Coal Mines Historic Site" just behind Saltwater River and looked at how convicts had to live and work at those times. Nothing I would have liked to do myself...

We checked in at Port Arthur's YHA (that actually closed for good the next month) and went for the "Port Arthur Historical Site" today. The entrance fee is about 25$ per person, but well worth it (although we did not need to pay ;-) .

It is incredible under which circumstances convicts had to live and work at those times... And what they were sent for to Tasmania (or Ne Diemens Land at that times). Some of them stole a hankerchief and were sentenced to 15 years of prison and hard labour. Incredible. Well... Port Arthur is well worth a visit... Also because, it used to be one of the main prisoner camps here on the island of Tasmania and thus played a huge part in Tasmanian history.

Tomorrow we will finally start with our first hiking trip. The "Tasman Costal Trail", or at least parts of it. We will start and finish at Fortescue Bay which is much more convinient for us with transportation (our own car) and cuts the trail short to 3 days. Enough for us for the beginning, with both of us still suffering from a cold.

Let's see if things turn out the way we planned ;-)

Tasman Coastal Trail

2006-08-11

...

2006-08-12

We had some light rainfall during the night, but by the time we got out of our sleeping bags, things were nice and dry again. We didn`t even have condénsation on the inside of our tent wall. Very nice ;-) We started at 10:30 am and decided to hike out back to Fortescue carpark which we reached at 2 pm. The way got considerably better once we reached the junktion where the way meets the other way going out to Cape Pillar. All in all a nice track if it hadn´t been for the part arount Mt. Fortescue.

We checked out at the Rangers station, spend a bit of time at the beach and went back on the road heading north. After a quick visit of Tasman Arch, The blowhole and Devil's Kitchen we dropped in at Devil's Kitchen TakeAway in Dunally (great Crèpes!!) and went on to Sorell. This is actually the last chance to go shopping in a large Woolworths supermarket, before you leave for the east coast. Once there, the only thing you will find will be small shops with high prices and little to choose from.

We reached Coals Bay on the Freycenet Peninsula at 9:30pm and collected the key for our room in the YHA. The drive there was very traumatic for Julia, because Possums and Wallabies just seem to get suicidal from dusk onwards. We nearly hit one a couple of times and now Julia refuses to drive during the night ever again in Tasmania... for a good reason.

Freycinet Peninsula Circuit 

2006-08-13

We didn't do much besides sleeping long, wahsing our clothes and eating ;-) Coles's Bay has more holiday houses than local houses it seems. Getting ready for the Freycinet Circuit tomorrow.

2006-08-14
Look's like a good day! The sun is shining and we are ready to go.

The visitor center at the Freycenet National Park is quite nice, although you cannot buy fuel or anything like it there, they have quite a variety of useful outdoor stuff there.

We started off from the carpark at around 10am and made it all the way to Cooks Beach by quarter to three with 2 longer brakes and at an easy pace. The path until Hazards Beach is extremely well prepared with stone steps and bridges. After the beach it get's a bit less prepared which is nice.

The beaches themselves were gorgeous and really great to be walking on with lots of shells and other stuff to look for. A very nice track so far also in terms of the scenery you are able to look at.

We are curious on how things will go in tomorrow when we will have to ascent to Mt. Freycenet.

The hut here at Cooks Bay is not in very good shape, but will make a sufficient shelter if needed. The campsite on the other hand is really good with new toilets installed and rainwater in tanks near the hut.

There's just come a High School Class with about 20 students to the campsite. A "girls only" school. Well.... peace is over now. Guess we just have to cope with the screaming and yelling...

2006-08-15

It is said in my "Walking in Australia" Lonely Planet guidebook that the walk from Cooks Beach to Freicenet Carpark over Wineglass Bay takes 6 hours. Well... it took us 7 h just to get to Wineglass Bay. We took it rather easy and needed a lot of time to get over Mt. Graham, I admint... but still: 6h all the way to the carpark is rather optimistic.

We took it (as usual) rather easy in the morning, enjoying the sunrise and giving our tent some time to dry from all the condensation. I guess there was not much wind during the night. At 10 am we set off and were rewarded before we even achieved something with a beautiful sunlit Cooks Bay. We retraced our steps from yesterday along the beach and reached the junction with the way that would lead us up to Mt. Graham. The actual ascent to Freycenet Saddle is not too bad with the way clearly marked and easy to walk. Nevertheless we once again realizied how bad our shape really is. Once on the saddle and with steady heartbeat we refreshed our water supplies at a creek and headed towards Mt. Graham. Going up there once again gave us a rather "sweaty time" and especialy the last hundred meters are quite steep with large bolders you have to get on and over. But once on top we were rewarded with great views almost all around in bright sunshine. Definitely worth the efforts, I'd say. Going down was painful (for our knees) and time consuming. The part after the flat area shortly after the descent where you go down the gully seemed to strech forever.

When we finally reached Wineglass Bay it was 5pm and both of us had enough from going up and downhill for this day. We could actually hear the gilrs class from yesterday before we cold see them... long before!

We found a good campsite a bit away from the school tents and were glad to hear that the wee creek here had water in it and that it was drinkable (although the colour is rather nasty to look at). Wineglass Bay looks just beautiful in the failing sunlight with the mountains behind it and the waves rollling softly on to the white sand. If you are ever in need of a romantic spot, come here! ... and pray that not 15 girls in puberty are there along with you.

We decided with it being only about 2 hours to the carpark tomorrow, to take it very easy in the morning and spend some time at the beach instead of walking right back to the car. Let's see what tomorrow will bring ;-)

2006-08-16

We had some uninvited guests during the evening and the night. One of them being a very sweet Bennet Wallabie which came so close to us while we were cooking and sitting outside that we had to shove it away. Neither shouting nor yelling did help anymore. But nevertheless a sweet thing. Just the opposite was our second guest. A brushtailed possum which scared away the wallabie and was absolutely what you would call a pest. Not only that it tried to nick Julia's sandals, it also sneaked inside out tent during the night underneath the outer wall and managed to unpack our carefully stored food. And this happened twice! I was very close to forget about ethics and felt rather temted to smack this possum a good one in his face or pour petrol over it and set it on fire. Amazing... And this being a vegeterian :/

We had some light condensation on the inside of our outer tent again and our sleeping bags were wet at the feet once again. This tent is definitely too short for our size AND bulky winter sleeping bags.

Wynglass Bay is definitely one of the most beautiful beaches I have seen so far. Especially from the lookout once you got on top of the hill on the way out to the carpark. The way up there once again required us to forget about our knees and tired muscles, clench our teeth and just get it over with. The path itself is extremely well built with steps everytime it goes up or down and even at this time of the year we met lots of day-tourists which were making their way to or from Wineglass Bay.

All in all a nice 2-3 days walk with a tiring but worthy ascent of Mt. Graham.

Apsley River Water Hole

On the way up north to the YHA in St. Helens we took a detour to the Douglas-Apsley National Park with the Apsley River Water Hole. Although rather off the usual roads a truly great spot for an overnight stay or even for a tour there. There is actually a track there which sounded and looked really tempting but with the problem to get from the end of it back to your car, because it is not a round trip. If you've got the time, go to the waterhole, enjoy the scenery and stay there at the camp site for a night... Or even do the walk there.

St. Helens YHA is a bit hidden, but absolutely worth staying there. Probably one of the best hostels I have seen yet. Clean, absolutely cosy with couches around a fireplace... Nice staff... Go there and enjoy one or more nights there. They actually sell some nice pizzas at "The Bakery" ;-)

Mt. William National Park

2006-08-17

Went to Mt. William National Park in the very north-east corner of Tasmania. Driving there for hours on bad gravel roads proved to be a real test for us and the car. We actually did the short walk up to the summit of Mt. William which gives you some nice views of the surrounding land. But the real highlight was the drive on the "Kangaroo Road" where we were able to see a Wombat and many Forester Kangaroos. Pretty large fellows actually which can get over 2m in hight.

We arrived in Launceston at the "Launceston Backpackers" (a VIP backpackers, not YHA) and booked a douple room for two nights.

We basically spend the two days in Launceston to walk around in the city, eat good food and pay frequent visits to the cinema ;-)

They do have a couple of really good outdoor shops there in which we bought some supplies and also a great book called "Cradle Mountain Lake St Clair and Walls of Jerusalem National Parks". Perfect if you want to spend some time in either of those national parks and if you plan to walk the Overland Track.

Mole Creek Karst National Park

2006-08-19

We took our time leaving Launcesten and arrived shortly past 3pm near Mole Creek at the Marakoopa Cave visitor center. We cought the last tour that day and followed our guide Dave through the cave for almost an hour. Truly amazing what formations those rocks can take. Not to forget about the strange things dwelling in thos sort of caves like spiders, ancient shrimps and glow-worms.

We decided to take the tour of the King Solomons Cave the day after with it being a "dry" cave with different charakter and looks.

After some (or rather a lot of) searching for a suitable spot to place our car and sleep in it we gave up and just parked next to the main road (which is relatively remote in these parts of Tasmania).

Julia tried to get comfortable on the back seats while I tried not to break my spine while sleeping at the co-drivers seat.

2006-08-20

Well... Let's just say that there are more comfortable ways of sleeping. Neither Julia nor I did have a great night and the car was one huge swamp with waterdrops covering all the windows.

We went for the earliest possible tour at King Solomons Cave again with Dave and all I can say is that it was worth doing this cave as well with it really being a lot different than Marakoopa Cave. Absolutely incredible those formations and the stories about how the cave was found and explored.

Walls of Jerusalem National Park

After a short visit to Sheffield where we bought some more supplies and filled up our car with petrol, we are now sitting at the Walls of Jerusalem car park. We plan to do a 2-3 days walk out to Mt. Jerusalem and back over Lake Adelaide... and Yes... We will spend another night inside the car. Let's hope that this time it will be better than yesterday.

We actually forgot to buy a proper topographical map of this area which we thought would be wise to do because of the remoteness and the possibility of snow up there. But lucky as we are we met two young Tasmanian guys who just came back from a tour and which gave us their map, although they said that the maps in our book should be enough to walk. They actually had snow up there up to their knees. What wonderfull news. Let's see, how far we will come.

The bad news was that we could read in the book and see on the map that there will be a steep ascent of about 600m within a few km distance right from the start on. Especially Julia is very happy about this and can't wait to be going running up this hill ;-)

But first things first. Before that we will have to survive this night in the car. But now it's time for some cooking. Pasta I suppose *gg

2006-08-21

It already started raining during the night. When we woke up this morning the sky was covered in black clouds and rainshowers came down repeatadly. This in addition to our backs hurting made us consider not doing the Walls of jerusalem track after all. Julia was also everysthing but happy about the first 600m steep ascent up to Trappers hut which must be quite awful. In the end we decided to do what we felt most like. And that was to drive back to the main road and head for Cradle Valley and the start of the Overland Track. After all it is holidays and we are here to do the things we feel like ;-) ... Although I must admit that it was no easy choice for me feeling a wee bit beaten by the track.

Cradle Mountain - Lake St. Clair National Park

The road to Cradle Valley nearly made me puke right into the car. I do not know how many curves (with speed limits of 15 km/h) we had to take, but there were more than I could take, sitting at the co-drivers seat and reading our guide book about the Overland Track. By the time I realized that I have to stop reading, it was nearly too late.

Anyways... I didn't throw up and we arrived safely and clean at the Cradle Information Centre. There's actually a small Café with internet access and a petrol station. Although I would not advise anyone to fill up your car there. The price per liter was 20 pence higher than in Sheffield. We bought some stuff to eat at the YHA Bunkhouse and Campsite and wanted to check in there. Unfortunately there was a school class already in there and there were no more bunks available. A cabin would have cost 100$ which was definitely more than we were willing to spend. After some reading in our guidebooks we finally checked in at a cabin at the Waldheim Chalet for 70$ a night. Not a bad choice, really. You are well inside the national park, there are almost no people around and you have a cooking place as well as a fridge and a gas heater in your cabin. Really nice... And our backs will thank us for spending these 70$. Further down the road from the Cradle Information Centre (but still before the Waldheim Chalet Cabins we are in right now) there is the Cradle Mountain Visitor Centre where you can get all sorts of equipment and fuel. For any food you basically have to rely on the stock of the YHA Bunkhouse Shop shortly after the Visitor Centre.

We also found out that www.tassielink.com.au operates a bus service from Lake St Claire (the end of the Overland Track) back to Cradle Mountain on several days of the week. Alltogether it would be something like 45$ for the drive with a YHA discount. So I guess, one of us will take that shuttle back to the carpark and get the car from there once we finished the walk.

But let's see what tomorrow will bring. Right now it is still raining and Julia and I have somhow different oppinions on how far we should walk tomorrow *gg* ... But I'm sure she will have to admit at one point that I am right ;-)

2006-08-22

The weather is poor. It hardly stopps raining and our desire to start the Overland Track today has been not really too high.

Went to the Information Centre and paid for a second night. Let`s see what tomorrow will bring.

2006-08-23

Snow. Believe it or not! When we woke up the world outside was covered in white... and it didn't stop snowing.

Nevertheless we decided not to stay another night in Waldheim. Partly because of the price (70$ for a cabin) but mainly because we just wanted to get going.

Do we checked the latest weather forecast (which was't too bad), left our itinerary with Julia's brother at home and set off at 11am from Ronny Creek Car Park.

Things went pretty fine until the ascent to Marions Lookout from Crater Lake. Until then we only had to suffer from rain and crispy temperatures... But once we reached the exposed area above the lake the wind gulls hit us without mercy. A couple of times I could see Julia in front of me basically being blown of the track for a few steps by the storm gales... Seconds before it hit me. Quite some space to attack for the wind with the huge backpacks and raincovers on top.

I guess that the ascent to Marions Lookout is a nice peace of track in good weather. At one point they even put a metall chain up to hold on and pull yourself up because the track gets so steep.

But in stormy weather like this and with ice on the track we were quite relieved to have reached the top.

In case you were wondering... we did not see anything at all from the lookout but grey soup.

Things got even worse from then on. Not only that the storm grew stronger, it also started to snow and our faces felt like being treated by sanding paper. With the ground being covered thickly in snow as well walking became strenuous and risky because of the many holes covered by the snow.

Neither Julia nor I had the witts to put on our gaitors which were savely stored in our backpacks.

It would have probably been too late for that anyway. After an endless seaming time and still no sign of the emergency shelter "Kitchen Hut" we had a look at the map and used the GPS to get our position, afraid to walk right past the hut in those conditions. Julia's shoes were filled with water from braking through the snow into a little stream and both of us had lost the feeling in most of our fingers.

When we finally reached Kitchen Hut it was almost 3pm and we thought about abandoning the Overland Track and turing back. It was more than 2 hours in either direction (CarPark or to the next hut with heating) and one thing we did definitely not want to repeat was walking in the dark... and even less in a snow storm. Decided to take shelter in the hut and sleep there to make a decision the next day.

Let's just hope that the weather tomorrow is better than today. No matter if we give up and return to the carpark or continue towards Waterfall Valley Hut... walking in this kind of weather is no fun at all.

2006-08-24

The storm carried on through most of the night. But when we woke up in the morning we found ourselves standing at the bottom of Mt. Cradle with bright sunshine, blue sky and not one cloud in sight!

What a change.

The choice was obvious. We carry on to the next hut and try to dry our stuff there.

The path, although sometimes a bit overgrown, was a real winner. Amazing scenery with Cradle Mountain and Barn Bluff sticking out of the snow covered world. Even more amazing looked the transition between the Highland and the lowland which was free from snow.

Waterfall Valley Hut is a nice little cozy hut with gas heating and water tanks as well as composting toilets. What else do you need? Right! Lots of Wallabies and a Wombat shitting in front of your door. We got it all ;-)

Looking foreward to the short and easy track tomorrow to Windamere Hut.

2006-08-25

We took it real smoth in the mornng knowing that it was only about 2,5 hrs towards the next hut. The way itself is mostly planked with wood and wire on top. Very convinient to walk... and very good for the land here if I think about how many people are walking this track every year.

The side trip to Lake Will was well worth the 30 minutes to get there in perfect weather like this. Situated at the foot of Barn Bluff it made a very idyllic impression. Just a shame that we forgot to go further on towards Inn Falls. We just forgot about them ...

Windamere Hut is just as the hut before fully equipt with heating and rainwatertanks. Lot's of good camping platforms there as well. The sun was still shining when we arrived there so we took our dirty clothes and went back to Windamere Lake for a wash and a quick dip in the lake. The temperature inside the hut was 8°C... so we guess that the water temperature was not much higher... to me it felt like -20°C ;-)

The two young German girls which were already at Waterfall Valley Hut are here as well and antoher 3 people joined us in the afternoon. The Ranger at the hut told us that there is rain due to tomorrow evening and the next day. Let's hope that we will arrive at Pelion Hut before it starts.

2006-08-26

Someone was moving around all the time during the night and I was close to be murdering this one... but chose to spend the rest of the night in the kitchen room reading.

Anyways... the weather looks good and we are ready for anything the day might bring.

We set off at 8am and enjoyed the views from along the track. Thick clouds were slowly but surely pulling in on us, but we nevertheless managed to reach New Pelion hut after about 5,5 hours.

Just a shame that the last two hours were absolutely awful. Once the track started to descend towards Frog Flats it seemed to strech forever and the ground was covered with roots and deep mud holes almost all the way through up to New Pelion Hut. Absolutely awful! Julia also slipped, got her foot caught in a drench and nearly broke her leg while falling over...

Well... now we are sitting here in New Pelion Hut, warm and cozy next to the fire and things are all well again. If the weather will allow it we might think about doing a day trip up to Mt. Oakley tomorrow. If not, we might as well stay here for the day and wait for the weather to get better which is supposed to happen the day after tomorrow. Got enough food, got good books... All is fine ;-)

2006-08-27

Allright. Resting-day. The weather is just shite. Freezing cold with moderate winds and a mixture of rain, hail and snow. Once in a while we can even see Mt. Oakleigh in the distance.

We also encountered another problem last night. Julia had some strange bite marks scattered over her body since we started the Overland Track. And day after day they are getting more. We thought about fleas or something like this, but yesterday night we looked at our sleeping bags and found a lot of small, white bugs in them. Bed-Bugs we suppose. Ever been sleeping in a bed when you knew that it was infested with bed-bugs? Well... The fact that we did not have much of a choice did not make it any easier or better. And we would have to sleep in those bags for another 4 nights at least. And after that we would need to wash all our clothes and all those thoughts went through our heads. Ever tried to get rid of bed-bugs in a sleeping bag?

Our mood is at the lowest possible point today. We'll probably look like we have akne once we get out to Lake St. Claire with all those bugs in our bags and clothes.

We told the ranger that was at the hut for maintenace and he said that this is a "real bugger", because they would have to smoke the hut completely which would close it down for 12 hours and more.

Anyway... Nothing we can do about that. Just have to go through with it.

2006-08-28

We noticed that those wee bugs we kill every night and every morning in our sleeping bags are present throughout the hut. This and the fact that Julia got "only" 2 new bites and I got none makes us believe that those bugs are probably no bed-bugs, but mites or something like it. Let's hope that this is true... it would make a lot of things easier for us. Nevertheless there is something in Julia's sleeping-bag which is biting her night after night.

We started off towards Kia Ora hut and were not supprised to find that the way is not much better then the one from Windamere Hut to Pelion Hut. Roots, mud, deep waterholes... the price you have to pay when you walk a popular track. At least we got out of the clouds once we reached Pelion Gap where we had stunning views of Mt Ossa, Mt Pelion East and into the valley where Kia Ora Hut stands. We decided to take the sidetrip up on Mt. Pelion East which rewarded us with incredible views over the valley and mountains that lay in front of us. The first bit up was very muddy and not on a marked way, but as soon as we got out of the woods, we found a clearly marked track leading up. Once you reach the stone-formation at the top you will have to do some scrambling and a bit of real climbing. Not for people who suffer from vertigo. We stoped about 5m from the very top because the rocks there just didn't make a very reliable impression and we just had the gut feeling that we shouldn't take the last 5m to the very top.

Once we were down again (which did take some time because of the climbing bits) we went further on towards Kia Ora Hut. Once there we were shocked to see that the hut was packed! Again a school class of youngsters in puberty. This time a boys only class. Just wonderfull!

We chose not to cramp ourselves in there but to camp on the group camp-site and treat ourselves with a lot of food (the pumpkin soup was bitter and absolutely awful) and a lot of chokolade pudding.

Stunning views on Cathedral Mountain in the evening sun!

2006-08-29

The tent is soaked. From the inside as well as from the outside. We waited untill 11:30am to finally set off towards Windy Ridge Hut, mainly to be able to dry our clothes and the tent.

The walking is not much fun... mainly because we had ready-made porridge for breakfast and even I (I do like porridge) was not very fond of the taste. We took in the side-trip down to Hartnet Falls which are amazinag and absolutely worth to go there. At 4pm we arrived at Windy Ridge hut where we are now trying for about 2 hours to get the coal fire started. By now we kind of managed to do that (the coal is soaking wet), but it just doesn't spread any warmth. Bad quality coal! Most of it looks like stone anyways.

Just good that we washed most of our clothes right when we arrived here. Always wanted to know how it feels like to start walking in wet clothes.

If the weather is fine tomorrow we plan to go out to Pine Valley Hut. If it is not, we might go straight for Narcissus Hut and the boat ferry towards Lake St. Claire Visitor Centre. Let's see...

2006-08-30

Wonderful. It finally hit me as well. What ever sort of biting insect we harbour has now found me as well. I woke up with five red bites on my left hand. Julia also got another few.

Although the weather was perfectly fine we decided to give Pine Valley a pass and head straight for Narcissus Hut. The way was straight foreward with extensive planking and bridging. Shortly before the hut we nearly stepped on two snakes (Copperhead we think) which were taking a sun bath on the middle of the way. Finally at Narcissus Hut we radioed the Ferry Base and booked us in for 22$ each, while suspiciously eying the humongeous and lethal looking spider just besides the entrance. We were quite glad that we did not have to spend the night there.

The ferry schedule was for 14:30, so we used the rest of the time for some cooking and sunbathing on the jetty. The boat ride itself was great fun with the skipper telling us interesting stuff about the mountains and vegetaion, while we were trying not to fall over board with the boat sometimes flying because of high waves.

At Lake St. Claire we treated us with some fried food and booked a campsede for 10$ winter-special. Tassilink bus will depart at 10:10 the next morning.

We are both happy to be back in civilisation and even happier to have had such great weather almost most of the time on the Overland Track. An absolutely great walk!

2006-08-31 to 2006-09-02

Julia went to Strahan with Tassi-Link while I went back up to Cradle Mountain to collect Hopper and drive down to Strahan.

We checked in for 3 nights at the CosyCabins YHA and basically spend the next 3 days relaxing, eating, showering and watching Teli with only an short trip to Zeehan and the Henty Dunes.

2006-09-03

Right now we are sitting in an absolutely beautiful DB room at Celtic Cafe near Mt. Field Nationalpark. On the way down here from Strahan we took a detour over New Norfolk to refresh our supplies.

Tomorrow if the weather will be fine, we will start our second visit to Mt. Field National Park for a 2-3 days tour.

We still don't know what we should do with our sleeping bags. We managed to wash all our clothes at Strahan and free them from the fleas (we are pretty sure it is fleas and not bed-bugs), but we didn't want to either wash nor chemically treat our sleeping bags. So I guess we just hope that all the fleas were in our clothes rather than in our bags. If not, than the whole misery will start again.

I guess I will give them a good clean with a brush tomorrow morning and hope that that will free them from any possible infestation.