Splash

Setting out, today was going to be another longer day. Again we were combining two theoretically separate days of hiking. The first portion would take us to the Burt Nichols/Windy Ridge Hut, and the second would get us to the Lake St. Clair Hut. Again we were the first ones out the door, what can I say, we're just very efficient in the morning. And of course it was another beautiful day for us to travel through.

It did end up being a long day, with about 20km (12 miles) total of walking. Our first stop was the historic Du Cane Hut, and more importantly it's toilet, which was a hole carved into a stump along with two carved pieces of wood to hold onto (and also cover the hole when not in use). Mark told us about it (of course). Definitely worth a look.

Du Cane Hut Toilet (camera sucks right now)

Then we walked and walked some more through forests and scrub land until we reached a turn to go see a waterfall. It was nice little side trip which led to nothing. Seriously it wasn't even worth wrestling with the camera over. Apparently in days of yore (last year) you could get much closer, but nowadays they're concerned about safety and that nonsense. So we continued and reached one of the stranger formations you'll find. It was called "The Bowling Green," because lawn bowling is a thing in Australia. Don't ask me why, I think it's just as weird as you do.

Bowling Green

The reason it's called that is because the grass is short as though it's maintained for a bowling green. There is no intervention by man to create this environment or keep it as it is. The guide book had a fancy explanation for it that Isabel read to me and I cannot longer find it. I now suspect she made up the explanation. She's a crafty one. Soon after we reached Du Cane Gap, which isn't significant except it marked the end of our uphill for the entire rest of the hike.

Hooray, it's all down hill from here

By the way, whoever told us that Du Cane Gap meant no more uphill was a liar and an asshole. There was plenty of uphill after that.
We saw a ranger and he checked to make sure we actually belonged on the trail (we did), and then made it to the Burt Nichols Hut for lunch. Rather than having a fun animal on the door it had Burt Nichols who has a hunter/ranger of old.
After lunch we continued on our merry way through the forest and back into moorland. On the way we managed to have our first fight of the trip.  Honestly, that's pretty impressive considering that we traveled halfway across the world and within a few days embarked on a rather stressful and strenuous hike. As to what it was a bout, that's not so important. It was mostly just poor communication on both our parts. We talked it out, and where far enough ahead of everyone else that we had some privacy to do it. We kept going until we made it to the only suspension bridge on the Track, about a kilometer from the hut.

"Now smile and pretend you're not mad at me."

Then there was the typical mad dash to the hut in order to get to the bathroom. After that I decided to check out the jetty. 4/5 people end their hike here and take a ferry across Lake St. Clair. We're not wimps so we were planning to walk it tomorrow. So I walked over to the jetty and Isabel joined me a little later. We're chatting, doing nothing in particular, and I happen to be facing the water when I see a small brown thing swimming in the water. "Platypus!" I cry. Isabel turns, we see it, it disappears. So funny story, at the beginning of the trip I specifically Isabel we would not see a platypus in Australia, it just doesn't happen. Thanks for proving me wrong nature, you jerk. 

I decided to jump in the water in part because the sunscreen we'd been using is disgusting, just horrible, and I wanted to wash it off. I hit the water and had two options. Die or get out. I opted for the second with Isabel nearly falling in from laughing so hard. All previous arguments were forgiven, we saw a platypus.

We headed back to the hut (which had a platypus on the door), hopping over a snake on the way (it had disappeared, but we sprinted over where it had been). The rest of the crew filed in and everyone else went on a successful pilgrimage to see the platypus. Iris got an amazing photo that I will forever be jealous of. Sigh. Everyone also said they got to see it much better than we did, so I grabbed the camera and went back, Isabel humoring me. Nothing. We were looking and looking and couldn't find anything. Then I sneezed and we heard this splash from a cove 20 feet behind us. We look and see a platypus swimming. Then it dove. But we saw its bubbles and could follow it! We watched it swim around for a little and then it got a little too far away, so we called it a night. The pictures were awful and have been deleted.

Tomorrow's the last day of hiking, and it may rain, but we've set up the rent and hope it's going to be a little warmer (it has been every morning other than the first night).

Sightseeing Like Tourists

One hears Sydney and two to three things come to mind. The Opera House, some weird bridge, and the Olympics. We just missed the Olympics by about 12 years, but we did stroll over towards the Opera House. All I can really say about it is…huh? For those of your unfamiliar with the opera house, it is one of the oddest architectural structures known to man. The crazy Aussies decided it would be a great idea to build a really abstract opera house, maybe it helps with the acoustics, maybe they’re just determined that nothing be normal.

It Kind of Looks Like the Pope's Hat

So we stroll on over and start ooing and ahing at it. We were staring out over the harbor and vaguely watching the seagulls and other activities of the bay, basking in the radiance of the city. We kept looking blankly and watched two gulls fly across making lots of noise, but then my mom exclaimed, “those aren’t seagulls those are cockatoos!” For anyone who doesn’t care about birds please skip the next bit, you will be alerted when to resume. We were pretty sure she was right and looked across the harbor. From there we saw a tree that seemed full of cockatoos. Of course we had to walk over and investigate. We found ourselves in the botanical garden, and every few feet we went a bird would appear to show off. There was a killdeer on steroids with a yellow beak, then an ibis, then parakeets, etc etc. The farther we walked the louder and louder the cockatoos got. For those unfamiliar, cockatoos are possibly the loudest creatures on earth, rivaled only in volume by the lion, whose roar can be heard for five miles across an open plane, and a wailing child, who emits by far the least pleasant sound known to man. (Note to reader: we had all agreed not to go birding within the city of Sydney. We failed.) Eventually we decided to about face and return to the Opera House. Of course a pelican appeared to see us off (pelicans are awesome).

Cockatoos, the Houdini's of the Animal Kingdom

NONBIRDERS RESUME READING HERE. We returned to the Opera House for a very important reason, to use the bathroom. Normally I would leave this detail out, but this was the most incredible bathroom I’ve ever seen. I did not take pictures though, that would’ve just been weird. The stalls had a wave formation to them, so they were all different sizes. Also the sink had a similar theme and it looked at though the water simply flowed off the back onto the floor (there was another tray to catch it so I did not spill water all over the floor of this famous Opera House). The other attraction was the bridge. We looked at it, looked at it some more, took some pictures, and then left. alright, we were too tired to walk over it.