Day 25 – High Camp Hut to Condominium Ck

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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 9:30, waiting for it to lift. Eventually I decide to just start walking.

I climb carefully and determinedly up the marked dolerite boulder field to the summit of Mt Eliza. Tantalising gaps form in the clouds then close again.

Becalmed of wind, the Eliza plateau is eerily silent, with tendrils of cloud drifting noiselessly across it.

As I hop across the boulder field siding Eve peak, visibility drops to fifty meters, and I have trouble spotting the cairns. I’m not hopeful of getting views today, and a return to Condominium creek may well be on the cards.

There’s phone reception at the junction to Mount Anne. Two bars of 5G! I sit on a cushion made of my rain pants, leaning against a rock, and spend maybe 45 minutes uploading the last five days worth of blog posts.

By the time I’m done, the cloud has cleared enough to entice me to climb her.

Climbing the lower slopes of Anne quickly gets my temperature back up after cooling down while sitting in the saddle. It’s all boulder hopping, with a little bit of scrambling. Enough to keep me on my toes. A slip down here could be painful; higher up, fatal. This next bit has some fear of heights warning to it.

If Ossa is crowned by one terrifyingly exposed scramble, then Anne is strung with a dozen of them like a necklace. I make it to the top, aware that getting down is often harder, and lamenting my decision to only bring two pairs of underpants on this expedition.

The views are fantastic though, if a little hazy.

On the way back down I choose to chimney down a couple metre deep chute rather than go around the exposed side again.

I don’t get back to the saddle until nearly 3pm. With the walk to Lonely Tarns taking 4 to 6 hours, no guarantee of a hammockable spot there, a twinge in my knee from the boulders, plus a renewed desire not to fall to my death courtesy of Mt Anne, I decide I’m not doing the complete circuit. I’ll head back down. Discretion is the better part of not dying on a mountain.

Walking back, I become rather dejected. I know I’ve made the safe, smart choice, but I can’t shake the feeling that I’ve let myself down. It’s probably just trail blues. I’m at that stage of the walk where emotional lability is a definite possibility. After letting go of the Western Arthurs and SW cape circuit, I think maybe I was holding quite tightly to the idea of doing this circuit. My feet are heavy. If I’d just packed an extra day’s food. If I’d just done Anne yesterday afternoon when the weather was fine. If this, if that… Then I chide myself for being petulant over one walk when I’m in the midst of this amazing adventure.

Well, I was never going to be able to do everything. I’ll just have to come back sometime. And you know, I just climbed a bad-arse fucking mountain!

The descent is not kind to my knees. That alone reminds me that it’s important to be making the safe decisions.

The track down from the hut wends its way through pink quartzite, the same stuff the sand of Lake Pedder’s beach was composed of.

New theory; extended solo hiking doesn’t turn a person weird. It’s a prerequisite.

I know I was less than kind to Mushashi bars in my AAWT blog, but on the days when I have them in my bag instead of the Aldi ones, I’m finding I really look forward to having one at the end of the day. I munch on one while I wander around, finding a spot to set up the hammock, filtering water. I cook my dinner on the picnic table like a real civilised person.

While I’m eating, a camper van pulls into the parking lot. Mia and Roux have driven to Tassie from Perth and are on a hiking adventure of their own, travelling around and going to cool spots. They were just at Lake Rhona back around when I had all that rain at Adamsfield. Apparently people were crossing the log with it under several feet of water! But there’s a better log 100m upstream, bigger and higher above the water. They’ve also done Mt Field and the Free Capes walk. Tomorrow they’re off on a five day Anne circuit, taking in all the side trips. While we’re talking, Mike from Brisbane drives in and joins us, also here for an early start tomorrow.

Mia says that she’s had nothing but kindness and generosity from people here, and she insists I join them at their camper where she loans me the use of a camp chair and while Roux cooks their dinner she makes me an amazing hot chocolate. It’s an intricate affair with at least two pots and paraphernalia. Mia is a barista. On the strength of that one mug, I’d say Mia is probably an excellent barista.

It’s nice to sit around and chat. Mike has been coming to Tassie for years to hike and has such knowledge of the place we forget he isn’t a local. He just has that vibe.

Some good company, and I’ve soon forgotten my earlier dismay at missing the circuit. I’m excited for these guys to get a chance to do it, and I’ve still got a hell of a lot spread out before me south of here. There’s a legacy of mud I’m sure will be interesting, and I imagine the coast is going to be spectacular.