A silly bloke drags himself across Tasmania from Penguin to Cockle Creek
“The journey of a thousand miles begins with a conversion to kilometres.” — Anon In the month or so that it took for me to recover from hiking the Australian Alps Walking Track, two things came to me. The first was the rapid return of all the weight I’d lost. The second was the realisation that I wanted to do something like that again. I considered a lot of possible walks, from WA’s...
…it is well known that a vital ingredient of success is not knowing that what you’re attempting can’t be done.― Terry Pratchett, Equal Rites 29/12/2025:I developed an ingrown/infected toe nail during the club Thredbo > Tharwa walk earlier in the month. Surprisingly, it wasn’t much of an impediment to hiking, but I really wanted to get it sorted and I was kinda...
It’s a bit more expensive, but it’s a hell of a lot easier than walking. The Be Good Tanyas – Light Enough to Travel [New feature: sometimes I’ll put a song here. If you don’t like it, please read quietly in uncomfortable silence punctuated only by the sound of clearing your throat.] What was the question again?– George Mallory I jump onto one last club hike before...
Distance: 25kmElevation: +1200m -1200mTime: 8:15Music: Heather Nova – Rewild Me I’m over the hate and I’m over the gate and I’m gone. Like a fox in the meadow, no-one on my trail, I’m gone. Heather Nova – Rewild Me I start my walk on the beach, instead of at the PCT’s official start point near the local rubbish tip. Penguin is a charming, sleepy seaside town. At least, it is...
Distance: 27kmElevation: +700m -650m Time: 10:00Total Distance: 52km Music: Evi Vine – I Am The Waves Keep following the lonely rivers song Go the distance A yearning to belong Found in silence With the movement of the tide Evi Vine – I Am The Waves The wind died down and after reading for a bit to the sound of kookaburras and the creek, I was out like a light. The morning is still...
Distance: 13kmElevation: +800m -600mTime: 8hrTotal Distance: 65kmMusic: Simon and Garfunkel – El Condor Pasa “There’s always a sunrise and always a sunset and it’s up to you to choose to be there for it. Put yourself in the way of beauty.” Cheryl Strayed’s mother. And Cheryl Stayed. And me. A beautiful warm night with the sound of the river rushing by. Today will be shorter...
Distance: 28kmElevation: +1500m -1100mTime: 11:30Total Distance: 93km Abels: 1Music: Tom Waits – Long Way Home Forgive me pretty baby but I always take the long way home. Tom Waits – Long Way Home I wake before the dawn and listen to the sounds on the night-bush. There’s a bird I don’t recognise, and something moving around at ground level making a cry like a pencilcase zipper being...
Distance: 14kmElevation: +500m -500mTime:5:15Total Distance: 107km Hike your own hike (H.Y.O.H.) It rained overnight, and I wake to a dark and dank forest barely illuminated by overcast skies. I dawdle, taking time to wring every ounce of pleasure out of my coffee. After only a short walk though, the clouds lift and the sun filters through and turns the wet forest to a sparkling fairy realm. I...
Distance: 3kmElevation: +90mTime:0:35Total Distance: 110km Canberra’s a great city. What other capital is within walking distance of the ski fields? Me, after walking 250km from Thredbo to Tharwa I wake in the middle of the night to the sound of rustling. It’s rustlers! I lean out of my hammock and find two campground possums (a larger, less timid species of possum than the usual ones) snuffling...
Distance: 25kmElevation: +1200m -1000mTime: 8:45Total Distance: 135km Abels: 1 (Total: 2)Music: The Devil Makes Three – Tow …and I stare up to that mountain that I know I’ve got to climb.The Devil Makes Three – Tow I fight off a couple of possum incursions during the night, but the enemy is successfully routed and flees. The zip bird is back. And one with the dawn chorus that sings...
Distance: 25kmElevation: +900mTime: 7:30Total Distance: 160km Abels: Mount Oakleigh (total: 3)Music: The Steals – Stay in Silence Walking is how the body measures itself against the earth. Rebecca Solnit I suspect I’ve found myself in what’s known as a bubble. A bunch of people who aren’t walking together, but are doing the same walk at the same time. Almost everyone who was at the hut...
Distance: 14kmElevation: +850mTime: 6:50Total Distance: 174km Abels: Mount Ossa (Total: 4)Music: Goanna – Solid Rock How do you know if somebody’s doing a Tassie Traverse? Wait five minutes: they’ll work it into the conversation. Four degrees overnight, and I wake to a blanket of fog over the plain and Mount Oakleigh looking resplendent in the breaking dawn. With only 14km and 800vm to do...
Distance: 23kmElevation: +600mTime: 8hrsTotal Distance: 197kmMusic: The Gathering – Your Troubles are Over The steps I takeWill pave the road ahead of meI will walkI will walk The Gathering – Your Troubles Are Over There’s an air of parting ways over breakfast. It seems the bubble is breaking up, with some going the 9km to Burt Nichols hut, and others all the way to Narcissus. I’m...
Distance: 18kmElevation: +700mTime: 6:45Total Distance: 215km Abels: The Acropolis (Total: 5)Music: Guilhem Desq – Le Chateau Magique There’s no such thing as shitty weather. Only shitty attitude. Anon I wake in the early hours of the night to the sound of the wind roaring through the tree tops above. Down on the first floor is quite sheltered from the wind, which comes in lulls and mighty...
Distance: 17kmElevation: +200mTime: 5:30Total Distance: 232km Music: Heather Nova – Walk This World I want you to come, walk this world with me. Heather Nova I drag my feet getting ready. I don’t have to hurry. My check-in isn’t until 3:00 and it’s only about 16km. I savour my coffee. More goodbyes. I’m alone walking through wet scrub again on a muddy trail. I try to moderate my walking...
Distance: 7kmElevation: +3mTotal Distance: 239km Don’t believe everything you read on the internet. Abraham Lincoln I don’t sleep too well on the mattress in the Bumlin Drunkhouse, though I’m glad that I have the three-bunk room to myself. I don’t understand how you people sleep on mattresses. Is it a masochism thing? I enjoy the novelty of eating my muesli from a bowl and my coffee from a mug in...
Somewhere today around Mount King William I I’m crossing paths with one of Tasmania’s most underrated and hungriest bushwalkers. But to talk about him, we need some context. A deceptively short 60km east-south-east of here lies the tiny, redundant prison of Sarah Island, nestled in Macquarie Harbour. Today it’s an out-of-the-way tourist destination. I haven’t been, but the pictures look lovely...
Distance: 25kmElevation: +1000mTime: 9:50Total Distance: 264 km Abels: King William I (Total: 6)Music: Puscifer – The Green Valley No direction but to follow what you know No direction but to trust the final destination Puscifer – The Green Valley It’s an odd thing to do, when you think about it. Here’s how you do it. You plot out a course from start to finish, fill a bag with...
Distance: 9kmElevation: +800mTime: 10:00Total Distance: 273km Abels: Slatters Peak, King William II (Total: 8)Music: Spectacular Spectacular – Let’s Fly Away Never tell me the odds. Han Solo I wake with a mixture of emotions. Trepidation, intimidation, determination… awe. I have one task today. Walk. The weather is perfect. I still have three beautiful days ahead, and the 40mm of rain has...
Distance: a few km?Music: The Be Good Tanyas – Waiting Around to Die Under the bludgeonings of chanceMy head is bloody, but unbowed. William Earnest Henley – Invictus The helicopter hovers a foot off the ground, disgorges two blokes with trauma bags, then files off again to circle. They do some cursory checks, note that I’m cogent and walking, grab my bag, and brief me on getting into...
Distance: 19kmElevation: +300mTime: 5:40Total Distance: 292km Music: Heilung – Krigsgaldr # Alexander Pearce did nothing wrong. Toby Back on the same bus I caught two weeks ago. Toby jokes that I’ll pop back up in Derwent Bridge like respawning at my last save point in a video game. ♥️♥️🤍 I realise I’ve been really bad at taking photos while in Hobart...
Distance: 31kmElevation: +300mTime: 7:15Total Distance: 323km Music: Fever Ray – Keep The Streets Empty For Me I’m laying down, eating snow My fur is hot, my tongue is cold On a bed of spider web I think of how to change myself Fever Ray The spot I chose to camp was more sheltered than I’d thought, though the wind ripped and roared through the treetops. I slept warm and...
Distance: 23kmElevation: +500mTime: 6:30Total Distance: 346km Music: The Kill Devil Hills – The Drought I’ll be taking it easy, taking it slowI’m going down the mountain where the river did flow. The Kill Devil Hills – The Drought 5° overnight. It’s supposed to hit 27°. I don’t really feel the need to rush getting out of bed. There’s a nicely appointed camp kitchen, but I prefer...
Distance: 31kmElevation: +350mTime: 9:30Total Distance: 377kmMusic: Goanna – Let the Franklin Flow Is there any reason why Tasmania should not be more beautiful on the day we leave it, than on the day we came?… If we can revise our attitudes towards the land under our feet; if we can accept a role of steward and depart from the role of the conqueror, if we can accept that man and nature are...
Distance: 14kmElevation: +300mTime: 6:00Total Distance: 391km Music: The Devil Makes Three – Forty Days Never follow someone else’s path. Unless you’re in the woods and you’re lost, and you see a path. By all means, you should follow that. Ellen DeGeneres Something large kept banging about in the bush around camp last night. Either Bigfoot, or a ten foot tall wallaby. Though I’m not...
Distance: 28kmElevation: +900mTime: 9:40Total Distance: 419kmMusic: Faith and the Muse – Shattered in Aspect It’s time to let goTime to spend some time aloneReconsider what could be doneUnbind the imagination Faith and the Muse – Shattered in Aspect In yesterday’s scrub I lost one of my usb cables; the one connecting the solar panel on top of my pack to the power bank in the top...
Distance: 14kmElevation: +800mTime: 4:20Total Distance: 433km Before you criticise someone, you should walk a mile in their shoes. That way, you’re a mile away and you have their shoes. I wake to a cold morning. Feels colder than the 5° my watch tells me it is. The quarry is filled with fog and birdsong. I only have fourteen fairly easy kilometres to walk today. I take my sweet time getting...
Distance: 13kmElevation: +700m -1300mTime: 7:45Total Distance: 446km Abels: Mt Anne (Total: 9)Music: Darkher – Hung When the wind whips through the skyBlow the land across my eyeThe map is not the territoryThe map is not the territory Ego Likeness I awake in a sea of cloud. No point walking in this, so I make my breakfast and coffee and settle in to wait for it to lift. I sit and read until...
Distance: 28kmElevation: +400mTime: 8:30Total Distance: 474km Music: Heather Nova – Rewild Me [again] Rewild my heart, let me findMy animal parts, the divine. Heather Nova – Rewild Me I wake in the night to the sound of scampering. I lean out of the hammock, ready to smack a possum on the nose, but instead I see a gorgeous little Eastern quoll! It’s gone by the time I get my phone out...
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...
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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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...