March 10th
Lake Will-Kia Ora Hut
Mileage: 26km on track + 6.3km side trips=32.3km/20.1mi
Trip Total: 30.8mi/49.6km
Campsite Elevation: 2824ft/861m
It was a cold one last night by Lake Will. We must have been in a pocket where cold air sits overnight. There was a ton of condensation and temperatures were in the upper 30sF/2.8C. I wore my new fleece overnight instead of my down jacket, which I prefer to use as a pillow in my sleeping bag stuff sack. I may be spoiled and ruined by this fleece with camp concept. It was pretty darn comfy. I’m becoming soft! It did make me think of returning to the comforts of home, which I’ve been thinking about more lately.
With the days we had off between the Te Araroa and Tasmania, my mind and body got pretty excited about not hiking (and not blogging!) for awhile. It’s been a packed and challenging (physically and mentally) past 8 months, and I am ready to hermit and veg out at home for quite awhile. My mind and body started to fall into that mode in our transition, so it’s been a bit of push to get it going again and to carry a solid week worth of food. I interrupted the hiking momentum and now my mind and body are resisting. I can easily envision a very near future with my fleece pajama pants, oversized hoodie, comfy bed, and marathon viewings of many shows to watch. It’s so close!…But first there’s awesome Tasmania to explore!
The sun rising over Lake Will and Barn Bluff.
I didn’t realize how much I missed Australia. There is a feeling here that is very calm and pleasant. It’s a subtle yet major contrast to what we’ve been doing the past couple months to feel so at ease with the terrain and weather. Not all the hiking we will do here will be this relaxing and enjoyable, but it’s a nice change of pace to start off with such good weather and trail.
Again, there was boardwalk walking maybe half the day today. The other half was more rugged with roots and rocks. There would have been mud, but fortunately it’s been pretty dry as of late. Another great thing about being back in Australia are the animal sightings. We got going at 7:20am this morning, just after sunrise, and I was hopeful we’d see some things. We ended up seeing a wombat, a wallaby, and many pademelons in the first few hours of the day today. I don’t think I’d ever get used to seeing Australian animals in the wild!
Wallaby
Wombat (size of a pig).
Pademelon
We had lunch at Pelion Hut, which is quite large with multiple bunk rooms. It had a great view overlooking Pelion Plains from the long deck.
Pelion Hut overlooking Pelion Plains.
The last third of the climb is more of a scramble and the top has a nice level stretch that leads to the final large boulder field.
Griggs is more comfortable than I am with rock scrambling and climbed up on top of the highest boulder. Again, it’s pretty incredible that we had such nice weather to be able to do both Cradle Mountain and Mount Ossa and get views. Both can often be socked in by fog and rain.
We knew phone service was possible, but spotty. It wasn’t strong enough of a signal to post the blog, which is what I expected. It’s frustrating because it really may be a week of backlogged posts before I’ll have good enough service to get them up. Griggs’s Instagram strategy is working well, and he was easily able to get a post up with many photos in Instagram’s new slideshow option. It’s a great new option that Instagram has, and I can see many using it as a simple blogging platform to journal along long trails. Again Griggs’s Instagram is @griggsdomler.
Trying to post the blog, but no success.
I usually don’t like out and back hikes, but the views were great on the way down.
After we returned from Mount Ossa, our packs were sitting where everyone leaves their packs to do side hikes. There are signs warning of the birds and how they’ve learned to unzip packs. I moved everything out of my side pockets so nothing would get taken, but they even went for my top zipper pocket that only had maps in it. The zipper was fully unzipped and they tried to take the maps out. Griggs forgot his trash ziploc was in his back mesh pocket, so they totally pulled that out and went through that as well. Pretty smart birds! The hike from Ossa to the hut was great and classic Australia.
We hiked an hour to Kia Ora Hut and chose to tent. We had heard about the wooden tent platforms and that they could pose a challenge for non freestanding tents. I’ve come across these before, and can mostly stake out with the given nails and chains provided, but it’s nice to carry small hooks that screw in if need be. We did pretty well with the adjustable chains they have here and ended up needing just three of our hooks between the two of us. We have a nice spot in our own space with a good view of Mount Pelion East, which is just across from Mount Ossa.
Hooks we brought and chains built into the platforms.
Mount Pelion East in the background.
love the fleece comment.. you’ve gone over to the dark side now of taking extra clothing and theres no going back ha ha ha ha ha
So so spoiled!
All I can say is, Wow. Tasmania, the landscape, the vegetation, It all looks so primal, so untouched, stuff of evolution. As I was looking at your photos, I was hearing the soundtrack of Jurassic Park in my head! Just spectacular. Good to see you so relaxed again too 🙂
Very happy to be back where I feel relaxed:)
Lovely to read that you are loving Australia! Us Australians also love it – great to see photos of some of my favourite places in Tasmania. Enjoy the rest of your hike!
Wombats in the wild!! I’ve only seen them at the zoo. Lol. Tassie looks awesome!
Tasmania looks gorgeous!! And the animal sightings are sooo cool! Another place to add to my travel list, haha.
Great photos -you’re on top of the world !! Love the camping -or was it glamping ? I’m glad that you are loving it .. I hope the weather stays kind .
Maybe Australia likes you Erin, I know this because nothing has bitten you yet. 🙂
Awesome pictures and loving the stories.
lancelot
Haha…yet being the operative word there. I can assure you I get my turn…
I check out Griggs Instagram. His pictures are almost as nice as yours. What kind of a camera does he use?
The iPhone 7!
WOW!
Actually, this last month or so I’ve slowly transitioned to my iPhone 5 as well. My camera wasn’t cutting it as I think it’s been knocked around too much the last two years. The iPhone is a ton easier. I may be converted…
Nice…about time. ?
Finally…. Wombats!!
Leeches were not on my wish list for you.
I was never on Instagram because at one time you could only sign up via smartphone and I didn’t have one. When I did get one.. never signed up.
Anyway it just let me sign up using a Kindle Fire..using the browser.. you and Griggs are my first follows.
You will have plenty to binge watch once you are home, but glad there are a few days left… then withdrawals for us readers until you venture out again.
Oh cool! Yeah it seems you can view Instagram well without a smartphone. It just requires the phone to comment on posts I think.
At the time you couldn’t follow without signing up.. I will have to try commenting. I did allow me to add to the like count.
My smartphone I use to phone or text patients or to be notified by a nurse or tech that they are almost ready for the drive home.
With my old car, to call autoclub.. ?
Anyway you and Griggs pushed me over the Instagram line..
Sweet! I took quite a bit of prodding as well. With their newest format of slideshows (like Griggs uses) you can post multiple photos to go with one post, so I think many will go to that format to journal from the trail. So much less taxing and time consuming. I’m jealous:)
Oh.. your blog is so much more..
And those social media sites can change formats in ways that often don’t work so well.
Your efforts are SO appreciated…
Thank you:) I am envious of the less time consuming routes, but do value having my journal when all is said and done:)
Ya, I can like an Instagram post but cannot post due to the lack of smartphone. Oh well.
I’ve heard Australia is pretty laid back and there is some really good surfing there. Who knows, maybe someday I’ll go for a bit of relaxed hiking and surfing. It really does look perfect; awesome views, many animal sightings, etc.
Ok, today’s posts and photos have me considering Tasmania as a dream destination (along with Australia, the continent). Leaches be damned!
Tasmania looks pretty amazing! I might add this to my list too. Thanks for your posts.
Leeches, what fun 🙂 Lighter works perfectly, they don’t like the heat of the flame & let go very quickly. Bit cruel for the leech though. Great pics BTW
Yeah, I heard they regurgitate that way and the wound it worse and itches later. I flicked them off (you’ll soon see) and they didn’t know what hit em!
I can see the headlines.. WIRED LEAVES SCORES OF STUNNED LEECHES ACROSS TASMANIA!! HER LEGEND GROWS!!
Looking forward to upcoming posts.
?⚡
no leech emoji
Haha!
Correct, it does increase the risk of them regurgitating with the effect you describe. A mate got one on the white of his eyeball while white water rafting in Tassie…now that created quite some excitement and precision work with a pair of tweezers.
No way!!! Ewww!
Oh Yeah, totally true, I was he one wielding the tweezers
sorry for the typo – should read ‘the’ not ‘he’
the quickest and best way of get a leech to let go is to sprinkle it with table salt. The bites itch so much for me that I have to take antihistamine. the bites always turn septic for a friend of mine who always has to then take antibiotics. BTW, since you don’t have long gaiters, do you know the
Aust. method of dealing in the first instance with snake bites?
Actually, try flicking them off. I heard the salt just makes them regurgitate back and cause that reaction afterward. You’ll read I got SEVEN at once in a few days after this post and flicked them all off. None of them became any type of itch or elevated thing at all when I flicked them and some had been there quite a long time. Yeah, I’m familiar with the snake stuff here.