A quick catchup. (My wife has assignments for Uni)
Monday and Wednesday were 80+ min mtn bike sessions. Tue and thu were 80+ min trail runs. Also paddled 40mins on the lake on wed.
Nothing on friday, today 90mins mtn bike through the forests and 80mins trail running.
Hoping to run the Harcourt Applefest 7k tomorrow morning.
Tasmanian trip.
Day one. Flew into Launceston then a long trip in a minibus to Cradle Mtn National Park. Went out for a packless hike in the late afternoon up to Marions Lookout.
This was a steady climb most of the way finishing with a section of pulling oneself from rock to rock with the assistance of a chain. Great view of Dove Lake, Crater Lake and Cradle Mountain.
Spent the night back at Waldheim huts, our last night with hot water and electricity.
We entertained ourselves with red wine and wombat, wallaby andpademelon spottingin the evenig.
Day two. The hike proper begins.
We headed out to Dove Lake and then started a steep and often narrow exposed climb up to Hansens Peak. This is on the opposite side of the lake to the main track.
At Hansens we reviewed our options. We'd already done some pack ferrying with the girls packs and from where we stoodthe track looked potentially more difficult.
We retraced our steps, a few bum slides included, back to Dove Lake. We then picked up the main track to Marions.
Linda was starting to struggle on the climbs. Much of this section is boardwalk steps (to protect delicate groundcover plants).
Greg and Gary had pudshed on to ward Marions. I decided to push ahead while Phil and the girls had a breather. I dropped my pack off at a junction 15mins uphill then ran back to meet them 10mins down the track. I then took Linda's pack and charged up to the junction. I left her pack there and took mine up past the chain section. Greg met me there having left his pack at the top. He took mine up while I scurried back and grabbed the other pack and headed back up. Gary came down and took Amy's pack up the chain section.
Eventually all of us and all our packs were up on top of Marions Lookout enjoying the stunning views of Dove Lake and Crater Lake and the peaks of Cradle Mountain while stuffing our faces with food.
From here it was a steady climb up to the Cradle plateau.
This area is treeless Alpine country. Views of Barn Bluff greeted us once we reached the plateau. The sun was hot and our water supplies pretty much spent. After an hour we reached Kitchen Hut, an old emergency shelter where the Cradle summit track meets the main tarck. Greg headed to the summit (a 90 min round trip). Gary was pretty much spent as were Phil, Amy and Linda. I went off through some rocky, scrubby terrain down the other side to a small tarn to fill the water bottles.
Phil and thegirls rehydrated and headed off while Gary and I waited for Greg. Our zoom lenses managed to pick up a tiny figure waving from the top of Cradle.
Once Greg got back we headed off to catch the other 3.
The terrain became extremely rough and rocky as we followed the Cradle Cirque. Plenty of streams to keep our water supplies up.
We caught up just before the track leaves the cirque and heads down to Waterfall Valley, our campsite for the night.
Half way down the track returns to the trees and in particular stands of Pandani, a wonderful local tree that looks a bit like a tall yucca.
We reached the hut at Waterfall around 5.30pm. We headed up behind the hut on a hill with a nice fast stream to pitch our tents.
The area was crowded with Benetts Wallabies and Pademelons (a stocky dark brown Tassie wallaby). Also spotted a few wombats.
Before bed we took our food to the hut to store it. We'd been warned that the possums and quolls sometimes rip open tents to access food.
Sure enough during the night a huge wombat sized possum woke me as he scavanged about the campsite. He just looked at me and I'm sure he smiled before wandering off.
to be continued...