Apparently, this was to be an easy walk and I would be fine in my runners. I was a little worried. We arrived at the forest parked the car, and started to get ready. As I looked around, I saw that everyone was well equiped, boots, gaiters, thermals, nice long rain coats, and it was starting to rain. My face fell ... oh my goodness, am I going to enjoy this.
We started off, walked for an hour before getting to the river, it was nice and low, no problems there. Yikes, what's that on my ankle, yuck, what is it, get it off, yuck, what a leech, get it off, ewww, I hate them, ahhhh. I ran across the river to get to what I thought was safety, no way more leechy, this is not going to be fun,
... and then it rained some more... .
hmmmm, off we trott, and the sun came out, I was happy again. We hiked for another couple of hours, and had some munchies, yikes, more leeches. Yuck, lets keep moving, I thought to myself. As the day progessed, the leeches dissappeared, the sun came out, and the scenery was magnificent. As late afternoon approached we could see the ridge where we would camp, only an hour to go.
.. and then it started to rain again ....
... and then the wind picked up...
... and then it started to hail....
finally we reached the camp, a little cold, but happy. Lovely flat, protected area, beside a lake, loads of trees, perfect. We pitched camp, had some dinner, chatted and went to bed, as the rain picked up again.
The night passed by as it rained and rained. At about midnight, I needed to go for a wee, so I shuffled my way to the front of my tent, to get out, thinking the ground feel really weird, like water. I opened my tent door, and to my horror the porched and half way up my tent was completely flooded and where were my sandals. With the river that was flowing through my porch, hmmm, they must be down stream. So I clambered out of my tent and stood there, in awe. What was I going to do? I had to move. I attempted, ahem, to wake the others but they were all sound asleep, nice and dry above the lake. So, with a lot of grrr, I lifted the heavy, non free standing, calasping all over the place tent and moved up over the lake. Frozen, I got back in and eventually fell back to sleep. To be awoken again at 3 to the sounds of the others moving there tents, the lake had risen again. I awoke in the morning to find that I was flooded again. So for a second time I had to move my tent, and again frozen...
... it was still raining ...
That day, we hiked around the ridge, we left the camp, and the sun was peering out, it looked to be coming into a nice day. I was a little cold, but soon warmed up as we got moving. As we neared the ridge, it started to rain, then hail, and you guessed it, by the time we reached the summit, it was snowing... and I was frozen, though still smiling. The scenery was amazing and company was great.
Back at the camp, we all huddled in our tents, drinking tea and eating snacks, to get warm. It took a couple of hours inside my sleeping bag to properly warm up. I had to borrow clothes from people, because my cotton trousers and tops were wet and well cold.
The next day, after a little cricket, don't ask. We set off back, the skies had cleared and mountains were amazing. We got back to the river to find it had risen a metre or so, which made it an interesting crossing. Linking arms, off we trott... my first river crossing...
It was a fantastic weekend. Thanks guys, I think I have had a glimpse at Tassie winter wonderland.
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