Australia

The Gorge at Launceston

THE OVERLAND TRACK

Waterfall Valley Hut, where we spent our first night

Walking amongst the Wallabies

One of the many gorgeous view - if we only we could've seen them!

Our only picture of clear sky!

Nic when she found out it had snowed through the night..

David enjoying the Australian summer

At the foot of Mount Ossa - this was the closest we'd get to Tasmania's highest peak :-(

Trying to get our socks dry...

The wombat!

Echo Point Hut where we spent our last night on the Overland Track

The excellent toilet facilities!

The view from Echo Point

So we were ready! After a quick flight from Melbourne to Launceston, Tasmania we spent a few days enjoying the sunshine and sights including Cataract Gorge and the docks. We made final prepearations for the days ahead of us and got in some decent sleep! The Overland Track is approx. 50 miles and we'd put aside 6 days for it in the hope that we'd get to do the many side tracks available. These would include Cradle Mountain and Mount Ossa - the latter being Tasmania's highest peak.

We were up at 5.30am and after struggling to get ourselves awake we were soon beginning our 3 hour bus trip to the beginning of the walk. We watched from our comfy coach seats as the early morning sunshine vanished and the grey clouds and rain set in. We were not off to a good start!

We stepped off the bus, registered at the National Park office and set off. The fog was low, the rain was persistent and the beautiful views we'd expected were nowhere to be seen! Bugger! On our first day we'd planned to walk up Cradle Mountain, however when we arrived at the path junction we could barely see more than 100 metres ahead!! Heads down and feet wet we trudged on through Alpine forests and exposed ridges to Waterfall Valley, where we'd spend our first night. The hut we stayed in was old, slept 8 and had no heating. It was good to get the packs off and have a hot drink.

It was a cold night even with thermals and extra layers. We woke up to the same weather - the ranger popped in to let us now that a snow storm was on it's way late afternoon and we should get moving as soon as. So off we set, in the rain through moorland, open heathland, patches of apline woodland and our first encounter of rainforests on the walk. Our feet still wet but faces still smiling. The second hut was much bigger, had some heating and was full of soaked walkers. The second days walk had been hard. We did 15 miles and it was a relief to get inside the semi-warm hut.

After a restless night due to the chronic snorer in our dorm we awoke to the sight of snow. The snow storm had arrived as promised and was to stay with us for most of the day. We wrapped up and walked on. Todays side trip had meant to be Mount Ossa but due to the fact it was covered in snow and we couldn't see the summit we decided to give it a miss! The snow and wind was quite harsh but when the wind relented we had the most fantastic views of snow covered alpine ground - it looked like Christmas!

We were the first to arrive at the next hut and after getting the fire going we tried to dry out some of our gear. Our feet were sodden and Nic discovered she'd even had a hitch-hiker in the form of a leech. There was a lot of blood for such a small thing and Nic was a complete wimp!!!

The following day was probably our best, weather wise as the rain stopped for a bit and we even had sunshine for all of 30 minutes! We even managed to do a side trip to D'Alton and Fergusson Falls, beautiful waterfalls! We climbed our last major hill of the walk through various eucalyptus trees - Nic celebrating by falling flat on her face! Once again, we were first to arrive at the hut and David soon got the fire going and the hut cosy.

Our second to last day and still no blisters - though knees and ankles were beginning to get sore! It was a hard 9 miles! We walked through heavy woodland, over wet slippery roots and rocks, through deep mud and even needed to fight our way through the 5ft ferns! Nic's knees packed up which made the last two hours of the walk drag out to three. It was a difficult day! Howver, Echo Point Hut - our accommodation for the night was lovely (apart from the reported black rats). The tiny hut slept 8, had a coal burning stove and was set on picturesque bank overlooking it's own beach and Lake St. Clair (Australia's deepest lake). It was a beautiful setting for our last night.

At last! We were on our last day and the promise of a burger, pint and dry feet at last was enough to get us moving. The terrain was as hard as the previous day and it rained continually. The views of the Lake were limited due to the thick 5ft ferns and huge King Billy Pine trees and it seemed to take forever before we found a bridge linking us civilisation in the form of the Lake St Clair Visitor Centre.

We'd made it! After a total of nearly 30 hours of walking, our great walk was complete. We de-registered ourselves then made a beeline for the fire where David ordered his pint and Nic got a proper caffiene fix.

Melbourne Museum

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Nic scared these big boys

After a quick drive from Duck Point we were soon arriving in Melbourne to stay for one week. Due to the Tennis Open we really struggled getting into any of the hostels we wanted and so ended up in a bit of a grot hole. Still, they gave us free muesli and powdered milk for breakfast - woohoo!

It wasn't long before we were showered and refreshed and ready to pound the pavements of Melbourne. It was boiling outside so we hopped on the free shuttle bus and had a little tour of Melbourne. We stopped at the museum - a beautiful, bright coloured building that resembles a rubix cube and made our way back into the centre via Federation Square - another fantastic building. We had a bite to eat by the Yarra River before heading deep into the little alley ways, arcades and shops.

For one of the days we treated ourselves and had a trip to Melbourne Zoo! It was great fun! We saw lots of animals and had a fun day out. David was quite chuffed when he saw the hippo and was fascinated by the baboons and their red arses - Nic even managed to startle the giraffes! Our biggest treat however was Nic's birthday present - the Tenacious D gig. Melbourne was hot but the concert hall was roasting and we were soaked with sweat by the end of the evening. It still ROCKED though! Nic had the best view in the house by being on David's shoulder for most of it - they played all the classic tunes

Towards the end of our stay in Melbourne we stocked up on dehydrated food and basic essentials needed for the Overland
Track - our big walk in Tasmania - we even had to buy a shit shovel! We began preparing ourselves for the following week.....

A deserted beach we wandered across

Wow! We fell in love with this little peninsula. We ended up camping at a place called Duck Point just outside the National Park's boundaries and therefore a little cheaper (we were squeezed in amongst the boats.) Wilsons Promontary was gorgeous and gave us a taster as to what Tasmania would be like - it was the last land link between Tassie and the mainland before the rise in sea level! We did a lot of walking over the next few days, through temperate rainforest and beaches. We visited Squeeky Beach - so called because it 'squeeks' when you walk due to the quartz sand and generally relaxed in the National Parks green surroundings. David had a little swim but soon clambered out after experiencing the stongest currents ever - Stong sountern ocean!

On our last day just as we were leaving the National Park all the cars were being pulled over for random breath tests. After David had finshed huffing and puffing we were soon on our way back for one more night at Duck Point before heading for Melbourne....

90 Mile Beach

After Thredbo (which we learned was later evacuated due to severe bush fires!) we hit the road once more and headed back to the East Coast and onwards to Melbourne. Our first stop was at Eden, it was a long drive over the Great Dividing Range the evening admiring the views from Eden's little harbour the Lens on the camera jammed! It wouldn't do anything but beep and shut itself off - we'd have to wait 'til we got to Melbourne before it could be fixed!!! In the meantime we still had Nic's camera so all was not lost! Learning a lot about these camera thingys...!

After Eden we headed to 90 Mile Beach - as you may have guessed this beach was blimming huge!! We ended up staying in a small free camping area just behind the sand dunes, you could hear the sea from the tent it was fantastic. In the morning we ate breakfast on the beach before packing up and jumping back in the car for the next leg of our trip to Wilsons Promontary National Park.

David gets the dinner on - whilst the kangaroos look on!

Walking up Mount Kosciuszko via a red run, spot Nic!

Glimpse of the chairlifts - the cheats way to the top!!!!

On the summit!

Views from the top of Australia

So after a night in a Canberra (long enough!) we headed south where we were would spend the night surrounded by mountains, all above 1600m. We set up camp in a very basic but empty site and got cracking with our first bush curry - we were then joined by some hungry kangaroos! Darkness fell and the stars entertained us for the evening with a now slightly cooler bottle of wine!

After a weird night of hearing kangaroos jumping around our tent munching away on the grass, we packed up and headed further into the bush. We travelled along the longest gravel road ever, pit-stopped by a 2 hour walk in the bush, out of ACT and back in NSW. We were now heading for Kosciuszko (Pronounced Kozzeeosko) National Park or otherwise famously known as the Snowy Mountains!

We drove the long way round through the mountains (working David's watch hard - over the day we had ascended over 6000m!) and stopped for lunch at Kahncoban Australia's highest town! We eventually made our way to Thredbo to stay for a couple of nights to tackle Australia's highest peak!

We were already the height of Snowdon when we started the climb but 2228m metres was still a way up! There were chairlifts going halfway which was weird with not a drop of snow in sight, but that was cheating! The weather was perfect for climbing and after 4 hours we made it greeted by fantastic views over the great dividing range!