Today I returned from the South Coast Track. I was really looking forward to coming home. I had a great week but the walk has also been quite frustrating at times, there’s a lot to tell and I will work on a complete diary with hundred of photos, it should be ready within the next ten days hopefully.

I’ve seen beautiful beaches, I camped on lonely campsites, ran over the South Cape Range in 5 hours despite knee-deep mud and constant rain, I got photos of beautiful parrots and fantastic scenery. But sometimes I was standing up to my hips in mud and was asking myself how the hell this can be an official promoted walking track in Tasmania. I’ve had days where the weather changed from sunshine to rain to hail to sunshine in 10 minute intervals. I got lost in the rainforest at the Ironbound Range because I took the wrong track. After two hours I found out because I met another German who got lost too, how funny. And the weight of my backpack was 22kg when they checked it at the airport (+ gas, camera and water), I couldn’t believe it, I was sure it was much lighter than on the Overland Track.

I’m still feeling a bit dizzy since I haven’t slept much during the whole trip, and last night I didn’t sleep at all after I managed to pitch my tent on uneven ground and constantly slipped off my sleeping mat. After a while I simply grabbed my emergency iPod (shuffle) and listened to music until the sun came up.

It’s so great to go out and escape the office world for a week without people around, without mobile phones, internet, or even huts. Simply go out in the forests, in the bush, and see how you survive. Drink water from nearby creeks, battle mosquitos and leeches and try to make your way out back into civilisation. Sometimes I simply need it. But after about 5 days I always start to miss my quiet apartment where there is no wind or rain, where you cannot get stuck in mudholes or slip out on tree roots, where there is a comfortable bed without a forest full of nocturnal animals that sneek around it while you’re sleeping, I start to miss pizza and reading the latest headlines from my soccer club. Then I’m starting to look forward to coming home. Maybe I need to escape sometimes to appreciate again what I have here.

Pizza is a good point. Or maybe not, depends on the point of view. I was really looking forward to coming home and going to Dominos to get pizza. Then today I actually went there and hungry as I was I ordered 3 pizzas and 2 garlic breads (it was a coupon offer, don’t worry, I’m not crazy yet). So I thought I could maybe eat pizza the next two days. Back home I really managed to eat 1,5 pizzas and almost both garlic breads. And drink an additonal 1,5l of water.

Afterwards I felt like I would die any second. I hate these moments when you eat way too much and then you have a strange feeling where you don’t know whether it all goes well or you should better prepare to go to the bathroom. Two hours later it all felt much better and I thought a cup of hot tea would be nice now. Unfortunately I was so thirsty that I drank it all at once and suddenly the strange feeling was back, and this time even worse.

So I even had to lay down for almost two hours while writing these lines, and now I only finish it before I really go to bed, I will be back at work tomorrow. It looks good now, but if I should die tonight you can write on my gravestone “The Ironbounds didn’t kill him. Nor did the South Cape Range. But the cheesy garlic bread was too much!”.

I have around 600 photos and videos to sort and edit, and when I returned this afternoon I simply threw everything on a pile on the floor and there it still is. My backpack still looks like when I came home, except for the PLB, I already returned it since Service Tas is opposite Dominos, but tomorrow I will need to sort the pile of stuff and dirt and I need to wash clothes. It will take me a while to catch up with everything, I can’t even read all emails today, mostly newsletters anyway. So it might take a few days for the photo gallery and the travel diary, I’m so tired I need to get some sleep now, haven’t had much sleep for the last 7 days…