I’m still planning with seven days, but I calculate with three spare days in case of weather changes, flood or whatever else. The Overland Track and the Freycinet Peninsula Walk have been welcome field studies for my equipment and multi-day hiking preparations. For the South Coast Track I need to be more professional. It is now autumn in Tasmania, snowfall in higher regions is normal. Thankfully I will walk around sealevel most of the time, so I don’t expect snow except maybe on the Ironbounds. But what I can expect is a lot of rain and cold wind. The days will be shorter and there will be less people around.

On my previous walks I had the following problems:

• My backpack was badly set up and caused me pain in back and shoulders.
• My backpack was too heavy, I carried too much stuff.
• I carried too much food, and what I carried was too heavy (e.g. cans or fruit cake).
• I didn’t carry mosquito repellent.
• Cotton clothing, not really suitable for hiking.
• I had blisters on my feet all the time.
• With only a 1 litre bottle I ran out of water sometimes.
• No real rain protection (it was summer so a light poncho-like jacket did the trick).
• Food planning and the positioning of stuff in my backpack in general was too complicated. On most days I didn’t have lunch because I didn’t want to unpack everything. I didn’t carry real lunch food anyway, only snacks, so I simply walked on to the next camp and had early dinner. It didn’t bother me much, once I start walking I can walk the whole day without eating much, but I think it would be beneficial to have a lunch break.
• My tent was too heavy and took up lots of space.

For the South Coast Track I tried to improve everything. Here is how I prepared myself for the walk. Upon my return I will post another entry to show what worked and which ideas failed.

Equipment

1. Tent: I bought a new lightweight one-person tent, the Vango F10 Helium 100. It is less than 1kg and can be pitched without separating the outer and inner parts. I did a quick test here and it looks good, even though I didn’t manage to set it up completely since pegs apparently don’t stick in concrete floor (I try to remember that).
2. Tarp: in addition to the tent I bought a tarp, or rain shelter. It’s quite big, but its weight is less than 1kg. In case of rain, I would look for a spot where I can set up the tarp, and then pitch the tent below. We will see how useful it is.
3. Backpack: I fiddled around with the shoulder straps of my backpack and it seems like it was not set up properly for my body height. Hard to tell at this stage but it feels better now that I changed the straps. After a few days I will definitely know. I also try to avoid attaching things outside on my backpack.
4. PLB: I went to Service Tasmania (something like a general help center for citizens) and hired a PLB (Personal Locator Beacon) for two weeks. It is a satellite transmitter with GPS. In case of real emergency – like a snake bite, since all snakes in Tasmania are venomous and can be deadly if not treated soonish – I can activate it and a rescue team can pick up the signal to find me. I almost feel a little bit overcautious, but everyone recommended me to carry that thing. Since I’m walking alone it’s probably a good idea. I found out my accident insurance covers emergency rescues, by the way.
5. Water: on the Overland Track I noticed that carrying only a 1l bottle can be dangerous if there are no water supplies around, so I planned to invest in a 2-3l flexible water tank. I actually did and wanted to take it with me, but it doesn’t fit well in my backpack and I think on the South Coast Track there should be plenty of water, especially at this time of the year. So I’ll leave the tank at home.
6. Mosquito repellent: basically there are two well known categories: products that contain a chemical known as DEET, and products that contain Picaridin. The latter one is newer and got good test results and since DEET is known to be pretty aggressive against skin and even plastic or clothing, I decided to give Picaridin a try. I found only one Picaridin product in my local drug store and it’s a spray, we’ll see if it works.

Clothing

1. Underwear: I will use microfibre underwear and a thermal shirt as the first layer. On top of that I have compression pants (like cycling pants, only without the padding) which keep my legs warm and the compression is probably good for blood circulation and muscles. It’s popular among athletes to wear compression underwear.
2. Trousers: finally I invested in a pair of Snowgum zip-off hiking trousers. They’re not water-proof but fast-drying. I will probably keep the legs off during the day. I don’t care for the brand, but it was the only store in Hobart that had halfway decent looking zip-off trousers in my size and in fast-drying material.
3. Jacket: on the Overland Track I often faced the problem that walking kept me so warm that I didn’t want to wear a jacket over my thermal shirt, because with the jacket it would have been too warm. So on most days I only wore the shirt. Sometimes however when the wind became too strong it was too cold and I pulled over my fleece jacket, but then it was too warm and I rather walked a little bit too cold than too warm. So I was looking for a perfect second layer that doesn’t annoy me while walking. I decided to buy a windbraker fleece west from Mountain Designs. It was reduced to almost half the price. It feels very good to wear it, while the fleece parts feel warm, it is still quite thin, windproof and breathable. I will probably wear it on top of my thermal shirt all day and see how it goes.
4. Rain clothing: essential in the southwest. I already had overtrousers so I only needed to find a jacket. I don’t like heavy Goretex jackets and the likes, sure they are good against heavy rain, but somehow I think they reduce mobility and flexibility. So I was looking for a mid-weight rainjacket, something between a heavy one and a light poncho. And of course it needs to look halfway good. At the Mountain Designs Easter sale I found one I really liked, it’s called Casbah. It’s light enough so I can imagine wearing it every day on the track, but it still feels strong enough to resist rain. It even looks good enough so I could potentially wear it every day in the city. Its inner mesh makes it feel comfortable but still it feels warm. I think my rain jacket doesn’t need to be able to resist monsoon anyway since I usually look for shelter when it starts pouring too much.
5. Socks: I had a lot of problems with blisters so far. Through Frank’s blog I came across special socks from a company called Injinji. I bought a pair of Tetratsok outdoor socks and will wear it as first layer of socks, it’s worth a try. Over the Injinji’s I will wear two pair of wool socks. If that doesn’t help, then it’s the shoes. My shoes look pretty worn anyway, soon I will have to look for new ones.
6. Additional clothing: of course I carry a spare set of clothing to wear at night, like thermal underwear, spare socks and my normal fleece jacket. I also carry a woolen cap and gloves, just in case it gets really cold.

Food

When you care for weight a good food plan is essential. The lightest food obviously is dry food, so before I went on the Overland Track I bought a Food Dehydrator and tried a couple of things like pasta or rice and it worked quite well. Since water is usually available it is best to carry food that only requires boiling water. This time I prepared some dried meals again.

Another popular way of preparing hiking meals is freezer bag cooking. The idea behind it is to prepare meals in freezer bags (zip lock bags) before you leave. Later you only add boiling water, leave everything in the bag for a while until it rehydrated and then you eat straight out of the freezer bag. Advantages are that it saves you time with cooking and washing up, you can prepare full meals at home and have no hassle at the camp site.

1. Breakfast: on the Overland Track I bought a fresh loaf of bread before I left and mostly ate bread for breakfast until it was gone. After a few days however it doesn’t taste well anymore. A friend of mine carried a bag of oats, a bag of milk powder and a bag of sugar. So it was cooking oats, every morning, nothing else. Originally I wanted to try it myself this time, since it’s easy enough. Then however I found the freezer bag website again and extended my plan a little bit. So in the end I prepared 9 servings (9 bags) of oats with corn flakes, cinnamon, sugar, milk powder and dried cranberries. I tried to prepare the portions so I need to add one cup of water. I can only hope that it will taste well, otherwise I have a problem ;-)
2. Lunch: again I don’t carry real lunch food, only some salami, cheese, dried figs, dried apple and some crackers. Should be alright.
3. Snacks: chocolate is essential, it keeps you walking for hours. Same goes for nuts. I like chocolate peanuts, so I prepared 10 bags of chocolate peanuts, various nuts, musli bars and snickers. Every morning I will stick one bag in the pocket of my jacket.
4. Dinner: I have dried spaghetti bolognese, dried pasta with broccoli, some uncle ben’s rice and a couple of cheap emergency meals like bags of soup.

Storing everything in my backpack

It looks like the normal 65l of my Cerro Torre backpack will almost suffice this time, but I tried to make sure everything is as accessible as possible. I stored all my food in a waterproof bag that I can hang outside to a tree during the night. One of the biggest mistakes you can make in Tasmania is to store your food inside the tent. Possums, quolls or rats can bite holes in your tent, and they will!

I’m still not sure if I should take my camera tripod again. Actually after the Overland Track I decided to leave it at home next time, but some of my greatest photos wouldn’t have been possible without it, I don’t know. I guess I will wait until tomorrow before I leave, try the weight of my backpack and then decide whether it’s worth/feasible carrying the extra kilo or not.

So far I’m proud that everything fits inside my backpack and I don’t need to fix stuff outside my pack, except the ground plane that I always put under my tent, as protection against sharp stones. The tripod would have to go on the outside however.

I’m pretty well equipped now, but there’s always room for improvement. My sleeping mat takes up way too much space, I found some that are only half the size, so that’s one of the next things to replace.

So I hope to return to the online world with another hiking diary in about 10 days. Stay tuned.