I met up with Luke from the Bushwalk Tasmania forum and we drove up Mt Wellington to Big Bend. From there we walked the Big Bend trail, climbed up Tom Thumb, continued on the East West Trail, and returned to the car park via Collins Bonnet Track over Mt Connection.
Collins Bonnet Track was particularly beautiful. A very exposed climb up to Mt Connection, then a long descent via alpine swamps.
A great 5h Sunday afternoon walk.
Food to Go - great ebook about hiking food
My good Geelong mate Frank from Our Hiking Blog has written a terrific ebook about hiking and outdoor food. It includes more than 160 pages with a lot of information about all sorts of things like receipes, food dehydration, equipment and preparation of meals.
It also includes plenty of comments and experience from other awesome hikers - such as me, hah! I’m featured on a full page with a menu suggestion for a 5 day hiking trip. I submitted the menu I used on my trip to Maria Island a few months ago, which worked very well for me.
If you’re a hiker or outdoor person, I really recommend you check out ‘Food to Go’, it’s a very informative and well written book. Cheers to Frank and everyone involved!
(I particularly enjoyed that he left the ‘bushwacking’ reference on the cover.)
Australia votes
In two weeks Australia will hold the 2010 Federal Election. As I am not an Australian citizen (yet), I’m not eligible to vote. Nevertheless, as a person living here and interested in national and world politics and as someone who’s job it is to be up-to-date about everything related to online, I’m consuming a lot of news every day, and I’m following the political campaigns closely. Here’s my take on which party to vote for.
A 7h Sunday afternoon walk in Wellington Park up to Lost World.
From the city to Cascade Gardens, Old Farm Fire Trail to Junction Hut, Hunters Track, Lost World, Pinnacle Road to the Chalet, Hunters Track back to Junction Hut, Old Farm Fire Trail back to Cascade Gardens and the city.
Wellington Falls Track, Hobart
What’s it like to walk the South Coast Track in Tasmania?
Watch this short clip I found on YouTube. Then imagine 85km track, 1 week out there…. and no mud without rain.
Ok, I admit it’s not always this bad, walking the South Coast Track can have its beautiful moments if you’re lucky with the weather, but when I walked the track on Easter last year I can easily claim the better part of the track was like in the video.
Maria Island - Day 5: Robey’s Farm / Back to Darlington
Sleeping in the farmhouse wasn’t such a great idea after all, I didn’t get much sleep thanks to constant scratching and moving from possums around and under the house, and the many mosquitoes. So I was glad when I saw the sunrise. I ate the rest of my cake and my food planning worked out excellent this time, there was nothing left except lunch and a meal for dinner. For the next day I had booked the morning ferry, so I wouldn’t need breakfast - I was looking forward to an extensive breakfast at the Triabunna bakehouse upon my return.
Maria Island - Day 4: Convict cells and Haunted Bay
As usual I got up with the sun, probably around 6am. Since I got to sleep early, always around 8 or 9pm already since you can’t do much at night except fighting mosquitoes, I didn’t mind. I took my camera and walked around the old farming grounds behind the campsite. You can find a lot of wildlife there and old farming equipment, a nice walk before breakfast.
Everyone was packing up and leaving except me. It was Monday and most people had to be back at work on Tuesday, so they went back to Darlington the catch the ferry in the afternoon. I didn’t have to be back at work until Thursday, so I was planning to stay another day. My plan for the day was to check out the convict cells near Encampment Cove and then walk to Haunted Bay at the northern end of Maria Island. Depending on the time when I get back I was also thinking about walking to Robey’s Farm, an abandoned farmhouse about 2-3h walk from French’s Farm.
Maria Island - Day 3: Darlington to French’s Farm / Day at the beach
I got up with the sun, as usual when I sleep in my tent. It looked like a beautiful day with lots of sunshine. I remembered there was a note in the bathroom about the end of daylight savings time, otherwise I probably would have forgotten to turn my clock back.
My plan for the day was to move from Darlington to French’s Farm for a couple of days to explore the southern part of Maria Island. There are two campsites at French’s Farm and at Encampment Cove, but I heard Encampment Cove was occupied by a large fleet of weekend sailors. I knew that Maria Island was a popular destination for boat owners, and the previous day on Mt Maria I saw at least fifteen yachts anchoring at Shoal Bay, so my plan was to camp at French’s Farm instead, which is nearby but was said to be less occupied.
Maria Island - Day 2: Mt Maria and Painted Cliffs
My sleep was ok, usually I never sleep well except in my own bed at home. Breakfast was great again, with cake, tea and apples. Normally I wouldn’t take apples as they are heavy, but since I was mostly doing basecamping here it was not a problem. And again I really enjoyed being so organised with only few bags, no trouble at all getting ready for the day.
At 9am I was ready to leave, I was planning to climb Mt Maria. I wasn’t sure if it was a good idea to climb a second -even more difficult - mountain just one day after Bishop and Clerk, but the weather looked alright and I was afraid I would have to skip it (like I had to in 2008) if the weather became worse the following days.
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