Picture Porn

"Good thing you have your camera for the worst sunset yet."-The ever supportive Isabel Low

And so our trek has begun. There was no post yesterday as we drove all day. The only two things worth mentioning are that we stopped at a wildlife park on the way and got to snuggle a seven month old wombat. There are no pictures as I don't want to incite too much jealously. Also, I didn't have the camera for that part. The other thing of note is that we got to our lodge for the night, packed our bags for the hike and then walked to the reception/dining area. Closed. Have you seen our pattern yet? We ended up driving 50 km on windy road to Devonport in order to get crappy Chinese food, perfect pre hike supplies.

That brings us to today. To quote the Low family "we're off like a herd of turtles." You see, we got up nice and early to drive to the Cradle Mountain Visitor Center to pick up our passes be on our way. We also wanted to get some gas as the unexpected extra 100 km last night left us quite low. So we got there, all bright eyes and bushy tailed, just before 7:30,. The center didn't open until 8...We wait until 8 and get everything sorted. We even purchased gloves because it was about 25 F that morning. I asked the ranger helping us about getting gas and he explained that the gas is run by the cafe, which doesn't open until 9. So we wait until nine, get gas, get a muffin, and get our asses on the shuttle to the start of the Track.

So, a bit before 10, a full two and a half hours after we got to the visit center, we are ready to begin our track. We registered and put down our itinerary and took the necessary photo at the beginning.

Yes, that is a stencil of a wombat

Then we started walking. I kid you not, within 3 minutes we saw a wombat. We didn't see it's leash, but I'm pretty sure the rangers put it there to keep everyone happy, like that moose we saw at Katahdin. Our other theory is that it was to convince anyone who just wanted to see a wombat that they didn't need to do the entire Track, they could just turn around and go home. I would consider this both an excellent and auspicious start to our journey.

We then walked through button grass moorland for a bit, which was pretty, in a brown sort of way. 

My Bag is Huge

The moorland was mostly flat, but then we started a gentle climb. Within a few minutes of the elevation change we were in a rainforest. There was no warning or sign or anything like that. One moment we were walking through these plains, and then we went around a bend and were in a rain forest. The rain forest only lasted a few minutes before it abruptly transformed into a deciduous forest. At this point our gentle climb has become a little more taxing, but we're still pretty fresh and soon after that we were rewarded by getting to the iconic Cradle Lake

This is Cradle Lake

We took a nice little break there because afterwards we would start the steepest part of the Overland Track (OLT). It wasn't going to be our steepest part because we are planning to a few sides trips up mountains, including Cradle Mountain.

Then we climbed the steepest part. Hooray. I know there was a lot of suspense there on whether we'd make it or not. The entire way was gorgeous, and I have to restrain myself with the pictures. Anyway, about halfway through the Track for the day, we dropped our packs and left them in a little hut along side the backpacks of other two OLT hikers who had started before us and were also taking some time to climb Cradle Mountain . We then played the "are they the other hikers or just day hikers?" game. We lost. 

The reason we needed to climb Cradle was that we're in the Cradle Mountain National Park. How can we go there, walk right by the Mountain, and not climb it? We can't. Cradle Mountain gets it name from the fact that to a drunk Australian with poor eye sight who's lost in the bush, it vaguely looks like a cradle.

Probably wouldn't be a very comfortable cradle

This climb was fun for the most part. Isabel and I both love scrambling over rocks, plus it was such a relief to get a break from my pack. Atlas may have the world on his shoulders, but I'm lugging around a tent. Anyway the climb was great until we went over the first mini peak and found some of the less exposed area. This area had snow. We had walked over a little on the way to the mountain, but we had poo-pooed it. As New Englanders we know what real snow is, not this adorable Aussie dusting. Then we saw this and realized that we had been just a teensy bit arrogant. Still, we're brave and never even considered (out loud) turning back. We traversed the snow successfully and even safely.

That's Me, and I know it looks pretty steep if I fall, well that's only because it absolutely is. Here's what it looked like if I had gone left (which would have made no sense as the peak was to the right...)

Just a little drop off over there. And yes, this is Australia, not Europe. Gorgeous though, isn't it?

We made it all the way to the top, and were able to see everything surrounding. It was awesome.

That's me thinking deep thoughts, pondering existence and such

We climbed back down, which is probably even more impressive. We just made sure not to look down during the little snow traverse part. Then it was lunch time. (Yep, we did all of this before lunch time. Saw a wombat, hiked a bit, then climbed a mountain, no big deal). Lunch was pb&j on tortilla, a wonderful little wrap chock full of calories to help power us along. We hiked another few hours and made it to the Waterfall Valley Hut (it had a wombat drawing on the door). It was quite nice, with enough room to sleep maybe 20 cramped people and there were only two other hikers in the area, Mark and Craig. They were a pair of friends from Queensland and were friendly and welcoming. They decided to sleep in the Old Waterfall Valley Hut, a dot further down the track because it was cozier and I think they wanted to make sure that they didn't disturb us and vice versa. I decided that tonight we'd use the tent despite have plenty of room inside. My reasoning is: if I carried the damn thing all the way here, we were going to use it. There was a nice grassy area that we were able to set it up. Then we had dinner, a camp stove meal. We decided to make a game of it deciding what to eat for dinner by sticking a hand into my pack, which has all our meals at the bottom, and seeing what we grab. Tonight was a backpackers chana. I forgot silverware in America, so Isabel had grabbed me a plastic fork to use. After a day of traveling in my bag it looked like this:

The biggest laugh of the night, if not the entire trip came from Isabel watching me try to eat with this former fork. Every time I got a chickpea, it would roll off as I lifted the piece of plastic to my mouth. After her appetite for my humiliation was sated, she relented and shared her spork with me. We ate around sunset and I had my camera at the ready...And the sunset was non existent, leading to Isabel's quote at the top. Once we got back in our tent, we realized that all the grassland nearby was in fact Chook (native hen, think grumpy wild chicken) territory. So they were stalking around clucking and screaming at everything, including our tent. All I can say is I hope their not nocturnal. 

I'll end this with a picture of the wombat we saw once we got to the hut. We also saw other animals that I have pictures of, but I guess this is probably enough pictures for now

A Devilish Day

More lack of internet, thus today's is very long to make up for it

Today was a massive travel day. It started before 7 and didn’t end until around 6. Now while this sounds completely unbearable in fact it wasn’t that bad. The fact I was not expected to drive guaranteed that I would be asleep for the first 3-4 hours of the trip. I was. I missed a ferry ride and apparently an eagle. That is unfortunate, but on the other hand: sleep. So after one leg of the journey my mom took over driving. Just as the first time my dad tried, I thought that there was a serious attempt on my life. Somehow I survived. Eventually we stopped at Trowunna Wildlife Park. The main attraction was to see Tasmanian Devils. This was not a park where the wildlife was all out there on their own, it was kind of zoo like. Only a nice zoo where the animals aren’t in small cages with iron bars. The devils were right out in front and were running around. The rest of the park was deserted except for a young French couple, so there weren’t lots of annoying little kids in the way like a regular zoo. So we wandered around for a while looking at the animals. There were three eagles sitting together with a couple ravens to keep them company. There were a bunch of other birds too, wombats, koalas, and then there were free range animals. These were ducks, geese, kangaroos, and wallabies that were allowed just to amble around the park. We were giving bags of food to feed them as we went. All the kangaroos were in one area and eager for food. I counted how many there were: 34. No cages, all trying to get food, circling around me in a frightening manner (not really). They’d even get behind you so as you tried to run away they’d be there. After exhausting all the feed we went back up to the main area because it was time for an interactive tour and feeding. The French couple and we three arrive and the zookeeper Corey asked us to hold on a second as he went to get a wombat. A minute or two later he returns carrying a wombat. His name was Rex.

Rex

We got to pet Rex as he walked on top of a table. There was also plenty of facts and information being taught, but I wont bore you with that. After that Corey brought us over to the baby Devils exhibit and caught one (by the tale). He explained that while most animals here were being rehabilitated or could not return to the wild (all the eagles had wing amputations for example). The Devils were a back up population incase the cancer running through the population kills off all the wild ones. The Australian government sponsors places around the country to keep about 1500 Devils raised out of the wild. We also got to pet the devil and learn all about him too.

How can you call this a devil?

His name was Minion. Then we got to see a feeding. Corey grabbed a wallaby carcass and tossed it in. It was road kill they found that morning. Devils like road kill. They are carnivores, but very bad at catching their own food, thus road kill. They’re actually pretty cute, looking at them you get confused why they’re called devils, then you see them feeding and understand. They did not learn how to share in kindergarten.

We get to the Cradle Mountain Lodge where we are staying, and of course see a wombat on the way, then there’s one right outside reception. We find out there is no free internet in the rooms, but there is a hot tub, odd priorities. So that brings us today. I decided to take the day off, do some reading, relaxing. Mom and Dad went to a park and got rained on all day so I think I made the correct choice.