7:26pm. Today was another great day. It involved a lot of driving, but it was a relaxing and refreshing day. I awoke before sunrise at Lake St Claire surprised by the lack of rain. I gathered my gear and headed out to see what (if any) sunrise there would be. Despite the sky being covered in thick cloud, the sun managed to pop through, just, and create a beautiful (and cold and windy) sunrise. I headed across to Pumphouse Point (3kms down the road) to grab some morning pics and drone footage there too. As soon as I had finished taking some pics the rain started again! Mr weather man must be fond of me. I then had a HUGE breakfast at the lodge, and then headed towards Russel Falls. This was a rather pretty yet uneventful drive. I stopped a few times along the way to take some photos of the surrounds. One of which was this pine forest just outside a town called Ellendale. I have a weird obsession with pine forests and I have no idea why. The weather was improving every minute and I was stoked. When I arrive at Mount Field national park the sun was out. I packed a small daypack and stared the hike to Russel Falls. This is a very short walk (1.3kms) which was perfect for my exhausted body. Unfortunately due to the easy access of the falls there were quite a few people around so I was unable to go past the marked path to get better shots. After the falls I decided to continue hiking on to the Tall Trees. Here there are some of the tallest trees on the world. Second only to some trees in America. It's hard to capture the magnitude of these trees in a photograph, but I tried. Some of these trees are more than 80 meters tall. That's seriously big. Then I hiked back to the car and actually ended up covering a distance of needy 6kms. As if I was only doing to hike 1.3kms. Despite the increased distance the hike was very refreshing as I took it at a much more relaxed pace.
I was going to take the drive to the Strathgordon Dam, where there is one of the highest dam walls in the world, but decided I would rather just head back to Hobart and call it a day (it would have been another 4 hours driving for a quick snap, and it was already almost 3pm). The drive back to Hobart passed through a number of interesting towns and areas. The country side is so beautiful and there are baby lambs everywhere and it's so freaking cute. After arriving in Hobart I had a nice shower (not in a communal camping hostel bathroom) and headed out for dinner. I had a lovely dinner at a historic Restirante called Ball and Chain, located in Salamanca Place. Hobart has some stunning old buildings and some really architecturally beautiful new ones too. I can't wait to explore all the shops and cafes tomorrow. Today has been a beautifully relaxing and refreshing day. Maybe I need to slow down more often...nah.
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4:57pm. It was a cold start to the morning today. I woke up at 6am to realize the power had gone out and my heater was no longer hearing my little room. So rather than lie there in the cold I decided to pick up and hit the road early. I figured at least it would be warmer in the car. The rain hadn't let up since last night, so everything was very wet. I drove to Rosebery where I stopped for some breakfast and a coffee at a little strange bakery on the main street. Apart from getting plastic cheese on my bacon and egg rolls it was actually okay. While sitting and eating mr sun came out to play! So I quickly jumped in the car and drove the15kms to the start of the Montezuma Falls track. This was a really interesting hike that follows the old tram path cut into the mountains that was used for transporting ore years ago. The guide states that this is a 8km return hike but I measured and it's actually 11kms. This wouldn't normally bother me, but it started to rain when I was on the way back and I was walking alone, and while walking in the pouring rain I contemplated contacting the Tasmanian parks and recreation to alert them to this misleading data. I think this was just a way of amusing myself while I walked alone through the rainforest back to the car for an hour. The falls were quite spectacular though. After returning to the car I began the drive to Lake St Claire where I would be spending the night. As I passed through Queenstown the weather cleared up just long enough for me to fly dronie around for some quick snaps of the road out of the town. Upon arrival at Lake St Clair I was able to arrange a bed in a bunkhouse rather than camping in the rain and snow for the night.
When I got to my room, it was literally like a prison cell. Two bunks, an archaic heater, a tiny widow and a door. There was just enough floor space between the bunks and the door to open the door most of the way. Luckily there were no other people bunking with me so being cramped was not too much of a problem. The staff at Lake St Claire were incredibly rude at all interactions I've had with them so far, and the forecast shows nonstop rain for the next two days so I think I'll head back to Hobart tomorrow instead of Wednesday. I don't really feel like hiking in the pouring rain again, especially as my hiking boots are still soaked from this mornings adventure. At least I'll get some time to relax in Hobart before heading home, that probably something I don't do enough so this isn't a completely bad thing. 4:32pm. Currently I'm sitting in the laundry room waiting for my washing to finish and I'm thinking about what a great day I've had.
This morning when the alarm went of at 4am (3am essentially due to daylight savings) I was surprisingly awake and lack of wind or rain brought a great sense of relief. I checked outside to make sure it wasn't that 'quiet rain' that's all sneaky, but it wasn't! It was already shaping up to be a perfect day. I quickly got dressed in my hiking gear, packed the car and headed off in the pitch black of the early morning to the base of the mountain. When I arrived at the car park I was the only one there which was a relief because I also noticed a rather unnecessarily large sign indication 'drones prohibited'. One of the perks of being the first (and only) person on a hike, means you can kind of ignore these signs to a degree... It was only 3 degrees when I locked the car and set out and there was snow even at the lower altitude car park. This snow made for a slippery and slow hike, involving a number of epic falls that would have been great to watch, like a chubby toddler who has spun around too many times. However the downside of this meant I ended up with some decent cuts and bruises, but for the view, totally worth it. First I hiked the Dove Lake circuit, and then proceeded climb to the summit of Hansons Peak. I made the decision not to climb to the actual Cradle Mountain summit mainly for one reason, my left shoe was 100% soaked with freezing water from one of my epic falls and I figured walking with t like that though the snow for another 8 hours was probably not a good idea. I'm glad I decided to climb Hanson Peak instead, as it was still quite a hike, but provided great views of the Cradle Mountain Peak as well as a variety of other lakes and peaks within the area. After enjoying the view from the top, and taking a few snaps I decided to head black down to the car for some breakfast. By the time I got back to the car I had been hiking for nearly 5 hours and covered a distance of about 12kms. Not to bad with a cold left foot. I had a brief relax and coffee at the cafe/info centre and then headed out to explore the Enchanted Forest and the Pencil Pine Falls. These were sort of mini-walks that were easy going and only a couple of kms each making them the perfect activity after a long hike. After this I was sufficiently tired, so I had a nap and took sometime to relax, have a shower and do some washing and read. I'll leave you with an interesting quote from 'Into the wild' that struck a chord with me this afternoon, "So many people live within unhappy circumstances and yet will not take the initiative to change their situation because they are conditioned to a life of security, conformity, and conservatism, all of which may appear to give one peace of mind, but in reality nothing is more damaging to the adventurous spirit within a man than a secure future." 6:05pm. Today was a bit of a uneventful day. I got up at the Bay of Fires before sunrise to yet another learning curve. I trekked to the beach with all my gear to photograph and film the sunrise. I waited for about 20 minutes until the light was just right. Then I set up the drone and tried to start it up. Turns out that if the battery is below 20degrees you have to wait till it's warm before you can fly. So I waited. And checked. And waited. For about half an hour. And by this time the sunrise and all it's beautiful colours had passed. I guess sometimes moments aren't meant to be captured, you just have to experience them. I packed up all the camp gear and hit the road towards Launceston. The weather was bad, resulting in the drive taking twice as long. After a refreshing coffee in Launceston I headed to the Cataract Gorge for a short hike. This time I lucked out, as the rain held off just long enough for me to complete the 5km hike practically dry. At one point the weather was even good enough for me to fly dronie up for some areal shots of the gorge. As I jumped back into the car the rain started again and is still going strong now. The drive to Cradle Mountain was a bit of a nonevent as most of it was on the highway, and the parts of it that weren't were heavily clouded.
Upon arrival at the Cradle Mountain Discovery park I discover my bunk room only has one power point which is for the heater so I've begun the task of charging my millions of different devices that all come with an array of batteries and chargers before I go to bed so I can have the heater on.This has made me realize how many gadgets and gizmos I actually have. Soon I'll go and heat up my butter chicken and rice dinner in a box at the communal kitchen and then pack my bag for an early start tomorrow morning. It's looking like tomorrow morning will be my best shot at reaching the Cradle Mountain summit (and having some sort of view) as the weather is (mostly) clear and shouldn't turn sour till around mid day. So the plan is to head off around 4am and have fingers crossed mr weatherman plays along this time. On another note, I'm meant to be camping in two days time and there's been a cold front and it looks like it'll be snowing. Maybe I'll look into some alternate accommodation... 7:12 pm. Today was an interesting day. Woke up after an amazing sleep at Swansea Backpackers where I ended up getting a four person dorm to myself all night. the weather however wasn't so great. It rained hard and the wind blew loudly all night long. This put a spanner in the works for my sunrise hike plan to the summit of mount Amos. So after waking up at 4am I went back to sleep for three hours so the weather could clear. Around 7:30am the weather began to clear a little so I packed up and headed off on the hour drive to the base of the mountain. Buy the time I got there the weather was perfect, no wind or rain, winning. So I packed my gear and began the hike. Half way up the hike I encountered this sign but decided to continue anyway. As the sign suggested it was incredibly slippery and basically I was climbing up a waterfall for about a kilometer. However when I reached the summit it was totally worth it. I got these stunning views over wineglass bay. The hike back down was pretty much a slide. I had some epic stacks, cut my hands and ripped my jeans a few times but I didn't die, so it's all good. While hiking down this was the view from the other side of the mountain, and by the time o was halfway down the rain began pouring down heavily again. So even though I didn't get my sunrise hike, at least I still got to hike to the summit and see the view before the clouds rolled in. After the hike I stopped at a number of iconic spots including Coles Bay, Honeymoon Bay and The Lighthouse. Then I began the 160km drive to the Bay of Fires. Arriving around 4pm, after a big day, I was incredibly underwhelmed. I mean it was pretty, but nothing like they say it is. And the campground is not as they suggest online, "ideally located at the waters edge, with views of the beach". I ended up finding another place to camp nearby and met an Alaskan couple who had been led astray by the online illusion of this heavenly campground that was nowhere to be found.
After dinner I set up to take photos of the stars. I was all ready to go, and then as soon as it got dark enough the clouds rolled in and I had to postpone to another night. Feeling a little defeated and lonely I headed back to the tent for an early night. Reflecting on the day I've been reminded of two things. Firstly you can't always do what you want/plan to do and that okay. And secondly, as much as I like time on my own, I definitely prefer to share things with people. 4:43pm. Today was a slow day. I planned to hike to Cape Houy before sunrise but when I awoke at 4am it was incredibly windy and pouring rain. So because I couldn't hike I did some early morning sight seeing before the crowds poured in. Managed to visit the remarkable cave near Perth Arthur, the tessellated stones and then took a forest drive up to Swansea taking me out some 200year old gum trees.
Now im resting up ready for an early start to hike to the summit of mount Amos for sunrise tomorrow. 8:07pm. Today involved hiring a car, lots of driving, lots of wildlife (owls, seals, eagles, wallabies, possums and an orange cat), a 16km hike (in just under 4 hours), Cape Raoul, Devils Kitchen, Fortescue Bay, The Tasman Arch and obvs taking lots of pics.
I've concluded that I will no longer visit easy access tourist hot spots as busses can access these points too, along great with their 3.2billion passengers in city chic wear. Now I'll just bypass these places and head for the more hidden spots along the way (or at least the paths that a bus can't get down). 6:54am. Sitting on the plane, flying over the south edge of the Australian mainland, listening to 'Out of the woods' (ironically as that's exactly where I'm headed) by Swifty and I'm reflecting on the past two years of my life and all that has happened and all I've accomplished. It's funny how being 3000ft in the sky does that to you.
Often I fee like I'm failing and wasting my life, but in this moment I'm realising all I've gone through, all I've experienced, all I've done and all I've learnt over the past two years and I'm proud of myself. I don't admit this, never mind say it, but I think I think I've done well. Well done Adi, you're a beautiful human. The Grotto5:42am. I'm up and in nature already, as usual. For two reasons really. Firstly because I don't really sleep in (ever) and secondly because there's a weird connection that I have with sunrises. The anticipation while I wait; what will it look like today? With looking at the first rays of light break the horizon and feeling the warmth they bring on my skin. The stillness of all around me. The fresh, crisp air. It's refreshing and invigorating in a way I can't fully describe. The closest thing I can say is that it makes me feel alive and real in a world that I often feel lost in.
These photos are taken from a lookout on a waking track called 'The Grotto' that I used to always ride my bike down after school years ago. It was a great place for me to work out my frustrations and to just get lost from the world for a while. I think this is where my obsession with being lost in nature all began. Since then it's become my escape from the world, and my unique connection to it at the same time. |
“What if I were smiling and running into your arms? Would you see then what I see now?” |