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).

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