Distance: 23kmTime: 8:40Total Distance: 700kmMusic: Bic Runga – It’s Over The road goes ever on and onDown from the door where it began.Now far ahead the road has goneAnd I must follow if I can;Pursuing it with weary feetUntil it meets some larger wayWhere many paths and errands meet;And whither then I cannot say. JRR Tolkien Each night I filter four litres of water. Two for dinner and...
Distance: 20kmElevation: +900mTime: 8:15Total Distance: 677km Music: Tom Waits – Long Way Home (again) When you go out there, you don’t get away from it all. You get back to it all. You come home to what’s important. You come home to yourself. Peter Dombrovskis The group that came in late are up an hour before sunrise, their bright headlamps strafing the campsite and forest as they break...
Distance: 17kmTime: 7:30Total Distance: 657km Music: America – Don’t Cross the River I love the fact that we are surrounded by this spectacular natural beauty that routinely strikes us dead. Hikers walk off into the woods and are never seen again. And still we tug on our fleece and skip off into the wilderness, not a care in the world. Chelsea Cain I was woken many times by scurrying...
Distance: 21kmElevation: +1100mTime: 9:15Total Distance: 640km Music: Eivør – Trøllabundin Madness takes its toll… Riffraff The forecast suggests some light drizzle to keep me cool during this morning’s climb, then nothing until the day after I finish. There are lots of things that can end a walk; bushfires, floods, shelter-shredding hail storms, soaking wet down insulation, hypothermia…...
Distance: 20kmElevation: +500mTime: 7:00Total Distance: 619km Music: Heilung – Anoana I looked back and saw, in my time of greatest hardship, only one set of footprints in the sand. I asked the Lord, why? The Lord replied: The sand people walk in single file to conceal their number. The wind dies away through the night, just as the forecast said it would. I’ve used The Garmin InReach...
Distance: 17kmElevation: 500m?Time: 6:00Total Distance: 599km Music: Heilung – Norupo Some walkers have complained to me that the South Coast Track is not easy – I agree but for the region it is the ‘easiest’ walk – all the other walks in the park except the southern half of South West Cape are considerably harder. If I graded the South Coast Track as say Medium-Hard then how...
Distance: 25kmElevation: +1200 to +1800m depending who you believeTime: 9:20Total Distance: 582kmMusic: Nina Gordon – The End of the World [meaning deep SW Tasmania] I hike to burn off the crazy. Anon I leave my camp set up and start walking just as the sun rises above the bay. The beauty of it feels precious and somehow fragile. The track takes a long curve inland, up and over to Ketchem...
Distance: 17kmElevation: +400mTime: 6:00Total Distance: 557km Music: Wardruna – Helvegen Round here nothing changes,Not in a hurry anyway.You can feel the endlessnessLike the coming of the light of day Goanna – Solid Rock I take my time having breakfast and packing up. I manage to offload the few bits of spare food I was unable to eat yesterday to Liz and Monica, and the caretakers...
Distance: To the Internet shed and backElevation: 15m aslTime: all dayTotal Distance: 540km You quoted Ellen DeGeneres?!? Shelle With the hut to myself, I’m able to string the hammock up inside and have a pleasant night out of the rain. I’m not expecting this to continue; with flights grounded for the rain , any hikers coming in today will have to sit out the weather. My luck with having shelters...
Distance: 21kmTime: 7:45Total Distance: 540km Music: The Be Good Tanyas – Out of the Wilderness If you can force your every nerve and sinewTo serve their turn long after they are doneAnd still go on when there is nothing in youExcept the will which says to them, ‘go on’. Rudyard Kipling – If I wake naturally before the dawn, worrying about the boat crossing. Wind and tide can make it...
Distance: 23kmElevation: +700mTime: 8:15Total Distance: 519km Scoparia, scoparia;Nothing could be scarier!I wish my legs were hairierWhen walking through scoparia. Linda Groom A wallaby scampers around camp as I wake up. The birds are chirping. It’s going to be a warm day, and I suspect another tough one. Straight out of camp, it’s mud and dense trackside scrub wet with the morning dew. But then...
Distance: 22kmElevation: +500mTime: 8:00Total Distance: 496km Music: Heilung – Nesso Hiking is not for everyone. Notice the wilderness is mostly empty. Sonja Yoerg A cold morning. My watch claims a low of 4°, 7° at time of writing, but it feels colder. There was scampering last night, and tiny hopping. Perhaps bettongs? Maybe a quoll? The Port Davey track is shrouded in mystery. Some say...
