On the Bottom Half

Overland Track and the Walls of Jerusalem

Gang, !!LENGTH WARNING!!

The better part of December has now been spent on various and sundry wanderings throughout Tasmania's wilderness. I decided to hit what is called the Overland Track (OT) from 30th Nov to 7th Dec. Then, I just got back yesterday from another, and much more isolated and therefore beautiful place called the Walls of Jerusalem. The OT is an 80.5 km trek across one of Tasmania's insanely beautiful national parks, but due to side trips and a distinct lack of laziness, my party and I racked up 92 km instead. The Walls is an alpine wonderland where we got snow during the first night...

It all started on 28 November when I ran into a girl in the hostel who was starting the OT the next day (29 Nov). It so happened that I was to take the bus up to the Track that day as well. I wasn't scheduled to go on the Track until 1 Dec, but I figured a couple of days camping in the mountains would make it feel a little bit more like home. At the hostel, I also ran into another guy who had just finished a long hike in the Southwest wilderness, and he promptly hawked his remaining food and advice on me. The three of us went out for dinner that night and talked hiking and travelling, both of them having been to Nepal and various other famous trekking countries.

Charmaine is her name, and we stayed together for the bus ride the next day. Upon reaching the Cradle Mountain (OT Start) turnoff, the bus broke down - one of the air pots on the right rear brake had been leaking all day. Thanks to some mechanical education from an unamed party who will likely be reading this, that had been my suspicion all day. Because of that, Charmaine missed her starting date because we didn't get a fill-in bus until 3.5 hours later. Also, sitting around waiting for the replacement bus was great cause to meet another character in this story, Adam. Adam is an affable bloke who Charmaine and I were lucky to have met. Both are Aussies. It turned out that he was to start the Track on 30 Nov; since Charmaine had missed her start day, and since I wasn't scheduled to go until 1 Dec, and since we all enjoyed each other's company so much, we decided that we would all try to get our bookings coincident and that we would do the track together, leaving on 30 Nov. Somehow, that all worked out and we did start the OT on the same day.

The day is now 30 Nov and Char and I are at the start for the OT. Char checks to see that her wallet and important documents are located where they should be, and finds that they are not. The next few hours are a whirlwind of cancelling credit cards, organising re-issue, and checking to make sure we haven't missed them anywhere. With all that organised, we set off. Adam got away earlier than us that morning and we were to meet him at the first hut.

Shortly into the journey, we come upon an emergency shelter, and since it is raining outside, we go in for a snack. Digging around in her pack for a snack, Charmaine finds her wallet. Hmmm... I will vouch for her that she did thoroughly tear apart her pack before we left. Sometimes these things happen...

Anyway, we met up with Adam in the afternoon at the first hut about 10 km into the track. The rest of the week we plodded along, climbed a few mountains, met more cool people, and did side trips. At the last hut, there were 13 people in it and 12 of them were Australian - one was me. Talk about lucky! I go peak season on the premier hiking track in Tasmania and I get to do it with a bunch of Aussies! Lucky! Met a nice family too, all of whom from Aus.

The last day of the OT was a bit of an adventure. It was about 25 km and we did it in sun in the morning and pounding rain for the rest of the day. Charmaine was attacked by gangs of leaches and arrived sodden and bloddy at the visitor's centre for hot chocolate and cookies. Hiking's great!

After that, we all got into Adam's car, which was a treat both for us and whomever was to be our bus passengers had we got that instead. You don't smell delightful after 7 days in the bush... We stayed at a pubby/hostel thing at the track exit, ate big steaks, gorged on sweet treats, then went back to Hobart the next day. After arriving there and checking into the hostel, we decided that a week of carrying a heavy pack wasn't enough - we wanted more! Because Char and Adam both still had some holiday time, we elected to go to the Walls of Jerusalem National Park.

So, we finished the OT on a Tuesday, and left Hobart again on Friday for the Walls. The Walls is an awesome spot to hike - it is in high alpine and is isolated. Where you would often run into hordes of people on the OT, there were none in the Walls. It was magnificent, but unfortunately only describeable (sorry about spelling) in pictures. Since the weather seems to know that Christmas time requires snow, we got a thick dusting of it on the first night! It was wonderful to wake up to snow covering the ground! That was Saturday morning, but the sun during the day cleaned up the white stuff. By the evening, it was patchy cloud and cool, but it cleared overnight. The stars were exquisite and the morning was perfectly clear. We hiked out on Sunday, then got back to Hobart late that night. Adam stayed in Launceston for the night, because he is taking the ferry back tot he mainland tonight. Now I'm here writing to you!

Of greater consequence is that fact that I have will likely be offered about $120,000 to do my Ph.D in Australia doing Hard Rock Geology at Monash University. Decisions have to be made sometime soon, but the uni hasn't officially offered anything yet so I'll keep you posted.

Update complete! If actrs is reading this today, I'll be phoning later on...

Thanks for the comments folks! I really love to read what you have to say. I miss you all a lot and send my love for the Holiday Season. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Oh yeah, Charmaine is starting med school in January and is dating a guy named Nick. I know you guys will ask, so there it is ;-)

posted by Kyle @ 18:04