Training Log Archive: Wally80

Event: Upside Down Rogaine
 

Narcissus to Lake St Clare
We had a fairly healthy discussion about whether or not to catch the ferry but after Rach insisted on doing the walk properly (OK, she insisted it when she was in the comfort of the couch at home) I decided to agree with her and pushed to finish the walk.

Due to the storm front overnight there was lots of puddles all over the track and a few trees down completely blocking sections. We were wet through after about the first hour and a besides a quick stop at Echo Point to have a cup a soup we maintained a pretty consistent and determined pace to get out. The views were pretty much non existent and I wouldn’t recommend doing this bit, it would have been much nicer to do Pine Valley instead. But slightly dangerous due to the exposed climbs.

We were both happy to see the signs of civilisation though the last 2 kms of bitumised track was tough on sodden feet. I did feel good enough to run the last bit in still and I dangled a bit of chocolate in front of Rach to see if she would do the same but it didn’t work. She still got the chocolate somehow though.


Not many photos of today since Rach wouldn’t stop and take any, I did pinch the camera off her for this one though:


Are we having fun yet?

Once we got to the lodge we paid the exorbitant fee for a cabin and delighted in a hot shower .I then hit the tourist desk to buy a new shirt since the one I wore for the duration of the trek was approaching sentience and I didn’t want it making any jokes that were funnier than mine.

Kia Ora to Narcissus including D'Alton, Fergusson and Hartnett Falls

Speaking to the ranger at Kia Ora he warned us that there was some pretty nasty weather on the way in and it would not be safe to do Pine Valley with the Acropolis and Labyrinth trips so we made the call to cut the walk short by a day and get out. Some of the other groups made the big call to get off the track that day and ate all their food just to give themselves the extra motivation to make it.

We took off at a more relaxed pace and made the side trips into all the falls


D’Alto(n)


Fergusson


Hartnett

We got to Windy Ridge hut in time for lunch then kept going down to Narcissus. We met a tourist who had just walked in and up Pine Valley for a couple of days. I made Rach take a pic of him not because of the 4 man tent he had strapped to his pack but due to the normal kitchen saucepan he had hanging off the other side. He did clank as he walked which was quite entertaining.



We got down to the fairly dingy Narcissus hut and even though we knew rain was coming in we decided to camp. We found a nice flat spot and set up for the night. The rain came down almost exactly to schedule at 3am but other than the noise it was all pretty comfy and dry in the tent, until the nice “flat” spot we chose proved to actually be the lowest point in the area and all the water began to pool under the tent. To give the tent full credit it didn’t let any water in but it was getting a bit disconcerting as we started to float. By about 6:30 we had had enough and bailed for the shelter of the hut.

Pelion to Kia Ora
We woke up to even worse weather than the day before so we had a luxurious breakfast of pancakes and coffee (oh yeh, we were roughing it) then sat around for a couple of hours waiting for the cloud to lift. We eventually gave up and started walking. The highlight of this day was meant to be the side trip to Mount Ossa, the highest point in Tassie but when we got to the turnoff we couldn’t see squat so we decided not to bother going up. In the brief clearings between showers we did get some nice views though.





We got to Kia Ora just as the rain stopped for the day. There was a group of boys already there that had bumped into one of the guided tours earlier in the day. These bludgers just carry a small pack and get all their food, wine etc provided for them at private huts with hot showers and actual beds. Whilst it is admittedly cheating it still didn’t sound like a bad idea. Anyway, they also fresh bake their own bread every day so these boys managed to scam a loaf. And we got to watch them eat it all. sigh.

It was also at this hut that I did the stupidest thing of the trip. Even though I had stopped wearing my icebreaker kit I was still pretty itchy and with only one non wool shirt left I was pretty smelly too so I decided to hop in the nearby creek for a wash. This creek was one of the special sort that when you first hop in you don’t think it is too bad. Only because it is saving up a special punch for when the initial numbness wears off. I apparently squealed quite loudly at that point. After I got out I realised what happens when you rapidly cool your body when you have a skin irritation. You get itchy. Really really itchy over your whole body. It wasn’t a peasant couple of hours after that.

But eventually it calmed down to only a major irritation and we set up camp on a platform looking over a lovely valley for the night. We had to be pretty quick getting in and out of the tent though due to the mossies and we woke up to discover that they HAD all seen Alfred Hitchcock’s The Birds

Windemere to Pelion

I was damn itchy this morning and I suspect I am developing an allergy to icebreaker stuff. Which was a bit of a problem since most of the clothes I carried on the trek were icebreaker. The odd bit of rain was rolling through but nothing serious so we set off in the low cloud across some pretty spooky moorlands. Which then did a step change into rainforest. The vegetation didn’t believe in transition areas, it was all or nothing out there.





Rach’s ankle had steadily been getting worse so we took lots of breaks today. After the first two days being pretty good track with lots of boarding in the wet areas we were starting to get into the less maintained areas and there was a fair bit of jumping around to keep our feet dry. We managed to avoid landing on the local wildlife at least



We stopped for lunch at Frog Flats and we were starting to get into the swing of relaxing walking and managed to boil the billy and have a cuppa for lunch. The next five groups had a similar idea so the mossies really got a smorgasbord of walkers to choose from.

I was actually enjoying going at a slow pace by now and really relaxing into the holiday. Rach was less enamoured by the rain forest, and in particular the roots of said forest laying all over the track so it was her turn to be looking forward to the end of the day.

We got a room to ourselves in the luxurious Pelion hut and I got my first good nights sleep of the walk, I was still catching up from the redeye flight I think. The view from the veranda wasn’t bad either



It was interesting staying in the bigger hut with lots of people to see how they were all set up. There were a coupled of ultra light minimalists but I was more impressed with the group of 7 young blokes who pulled out tins of tomatoes and chick peas for dinner, and the two young chicks who were both carrying packs bigger and heavier than mine. I figured it meant that Rach couldn’t complain about her featherweight pack. But she still did.

Barn Bluff side trip then Waterfall Valley to Windemere

Another lovely day so we left our packs at Waterfall Valley then backtracked up to the high plain and then across to Barn Bluff, this was a less travelled side trip and the markers were just small cairns. Which was interesting up the scree slope trying to spot the small piles of rocks….. amongst the really big pile of rocks.
The view from the top was certainly worth it though.







The actual distance between huts wasn’t much but after towards the end I was pretty much over walking and getting pretty grumpy with the whole thing. We skipped the side trip into Lake Will which was a shame but I was happy to see the hut and get to pitch our tent in a quiet corner. I was pretty keen for a beer though. The dinner special was finished off by a dehyd apple pie. It was either remarkably good or my expectations had already been lowered by the two days walking.

We went to sleep with beautiful views from our tent







But woke up to just a bit of cloud

Dove Lake to Waterfall Valley Camp with Cradle Mountain side trip


We made the call to start from Dove Lake rather than Ronny Creek since we missed out on getting up there the previous day. This meant for some tougher climbing but was worth it for the views:





We joined the main track just before the pinch climb to Marions. As this was a casual walk (not a race apparently) we had lots of rest stops and so we were only hurting a bit by the top but I was still mentally going through the how to weight purge my pack side of things. Do I really need those warm clothes? Perhaps I should eat more so I don’t have to carry it on the outside.

We dumped the packs at the bottom of Cradle and scrambled up the mountain for a look, there were lots of day trippers doing the same thing so we had plenty of company in the gasping climb, legs were already getting tired and the knee wasn’t happy so it wasn’t the best start. The views were pretty good though





Back down the hill and after much avoidance we had to pick the packs up and keep going. The section along the base of Cradle Mountain was pretty boring and with no shade the heat was actually pretty fierce. We had the minimum number of stops possible through here and keep pushing across the high plains to the spur that led down to the first hut. As soon as we dropped over the edge the vegetation changed markedly and we had some shade again, but it was traded off by a 30 minute quad crunching downhill at the end of a long day walking. I was pretty happy to see the hut and finally put the pack down.

The vacuum packed lamb with mashed spuds went down pretty well for dinner as we watched the other people tuck into their red lentil dinner. We did pretty well on the food front all the way through the trip actually. We chose to stay in the hut since it was forecast to be a damn cold night, and even with a thermal and jumper on inside my sleeping bag with liner I was freezing. I was starting to regret going the lightweight bag.

Pre walk.
The redeye flight into Launceston combined with the misguided decision to walk the cascades and attend the local Festivale meant we were pretty tired before we got to the shops for our food stock up. Somehow we managed to get everything on the list and get it back to our rooms without falling asleep and manage the space warping task of packing, I estimated 24kg’s for my pack with 2L water at the start but never got around to weighing it.

We caught a small charter bus up to Cradle Mountain which was much better than the main bus, we got a guided tour of the area on the way and a bakery stop when required. Good stuff. When we got up to Cradle Mountain we met rain (as West Australians we did need to be initiated into the concept of water falling from the sky) and we were very glad to check into the lodge for a last night of comfort whilst some other suckers set off on the walk. My knee was still sore so we just did a couple of warm up walks that afternoon around the lodge and met lots of the local wildlife.





Plus we started to realise how much water was around