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: 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...
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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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...
