January 2009
9 posts
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Overland Track - Day 1: Cradle Mountain Visitor...
On Saturday 20th December 2008 I went to the Launceston Transit Centre early in the morning to catch the Tassielink bus to Cradle Mountain. There were heaps of other bushwalkers and hikers already waiting.
With stops in Devonport and Sheffield we arrived at the Cradle Mountain Visitor Centre around 11.15am. It was a really nice bus ride with a friendly driver and I tried to make myself realise...
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Overland Track
In 2008 I decided to have a different christmas than usual (as if being lonely in Tasmania wouldn’t be different enough…), so I decided to do something exciting and walk the Overland Track, a world famous hiking route through the Tasmanian wilderness that takes around one week to walk. When the booking system openend on 1st July 2008 I booked my ticket and from the 20th December to the 27th I...
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Overland Track - Day 4: Windermere - Pelion
This could be the longest walk on the Overland Track, so I got up early around 6.30am. I tried to have quick breakfast and hurry with packing my tent because there were some dark clouds and what I don’t like at all is packing my tent while it’s raining.
But fortunately it didn’t rain and around 8.45am I left Windermere. While packing I noticed I was able to pack my luggage without using the 20l...
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Overland Track - Day 2: Scott Kilvert Hut -...
The morning of the second day my legs were still so tired and sore that I decided to stay at Scott Kilvert Hut and spend another night there. The weather was brilliant that day so I planned to have a quiet day in the sun and relax down at Lake Rodway.
After breakfast I went down to the lake for a swim and washed my clothes. It didn’t take long and I got bored, there’s simply nothing to do at...
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Overland Track - Day 3: Waterfall Valley -...
During the night the weather changed. It rained and there was strong wind, a real storm. In the morning it still looked a bit rainy, so I put on my rain clothes.
That morning I felt like I had been walking for weeks, my legs were sore, my shoulders were swollen, I had light sunburn everywhere and my hands were slightly grazed. Hard to believe that this was the first official night on the...
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Overland Track - Day 8: Echo Point - Lake St Clair...
My last day on the Overland Track, somehow I was sad that everything was over now, on the other hand I was looking forward to returning home, having a shower, getting rid of that backpack and working through that huge collection of photos.
Around 8.30am I left Echo Point and tried to walk to Lake St Clair visitor centre relatively quick, as the bus left at 11.45am and I didn’t have a ticket...
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Overland Track - Day 6: Kia Ora - Windy Ridge
My sleep was interrupted by a very annoying visitor. I had stored my camping dishes in a plastic bag at the front section of my tent where I stored my shoes at night and a possum must have smelled the sponge that I used to clean my dishes, so it sneaked under my tent and tried to pull away the whole plastic bag. Of course I woke up by the noise and tried to shoo it away by rattling my tent, but...
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Overland Track - Day 7: Windy Ridge - Echo Point
When I woke up in the morning it looked like another sunny day, it really takes a lot of luck to get a whole week of sun on the Overland Track. Today’s walk would only be 3 hours to Narcissus Hut, so I wasn’t in a hurry.
The night before I checked the bus timetables inside Bert Nichols Hut. My plan was not to do the sidetrip to Pine Valley, instead going straight to Narcissus Hut, spending the...
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Overland Track - Day 5: Pelion - Kia Ora
Early in the morning I woke up by the sound of that strange bird I noticed when I had dinner last night. I was looking forward to that day because it was Christmas Eve and one of the sidetrip today was Mount Ossa, the highest mountain in Tasmania. Of course I wanted to climb up there, it is simply great to tell people afterwards that you stood on top of Mount Ossa when they ask you what you did...