Overland Track ... part 3 of 3

...continued from part 2...

Typical morning for Kimbo... groggy until coffee in bed.


... but one sip, and she turns into a ninja.


And that anxiety turns into eagerness to face the rainy cold day. She usually then does a long howl, and screams, "BRING IT ON!"


Suspension bridge... I was teaching Kimbo some Japanese while walking on the trail... and sometimes another hiker would come up from behind wondering what was going on... but it's all worth it, as now she can ask, "what is the name of your stinky dog?" in Japanese.


At the Echo Point Hut... by far the smallest hut we stayed in. Funny how the huts on Lake St. Clair were in the worst shape.... the new windy ridge hut cost 1.2 million to build last year, mainly due to helicoptor costs for material transport... there is a ferry that goes to these huts 3 times a day! Am I missing something?


Check out Joe's feet! He had been hiking in his "work" boots...


By this time my IPA stove was on it's last legs... not really working too well...


There is a ferry that eliminates the need to hike the last 16 km of the Overland Track... stopping at Narcissus and Echo Point. "Coincidentally" this section of the track is horribly unmaintained. By far the worst section of the Overland track, we figured the private ferry business prevents maintanence from happening, and the NPS succumbs to their every wish...


The last few huts, Narcissus, Pine Valley, and Echo Point are well regarded among rodents as fine places to harass humans... We took lots of precautions as we saw some scat, but we didn't wake up with rodents crawling over our faces like some of the other campers had at Narcissus on this same night...


Leaches... are one reason you want to wear some gaitors... they attach unnoticed onto your skin, suck your blood, and leave you with a bloody, itchy mark. They secrete some anti-coagulant, so it keeps bleeding... but other than that they are very cute. I nearly made it out without any, but I found one on my leg as I saw the Lake St. Clair Visitor Center...


Before...


And after...


Found another one crawling on my bag... this is what they look like skinny...


From the visitor center, it's 5 km to the Derwent Bridges hotel... we quickly hitched a ride there...


To quench our thirst... now THIS was good. Slowly the rest of the hiking crowd started mulling in. And since the weather was getting worse, the hikers behind us all took the ferry in, and skipped a day, so there were probably 30 familiar faces to eat, drink, and chat with. Great night.


The next morning came with it a stark realization. The tent. The tent we never used on the hike was missing... and we traced it back to the Echo Point Hut... where I had offered to carry out another hiker's backpack as she had badly twisted her ankle. Anyway, carrying the bag wasn't a problem, but amidst all the gear I had forgot to pack the tent... so we hitched a ride back to the visitor center... and off I went... 11 km back to the hut, praying that my tent was still there.

... and it was.


But running back to the tent meant we missed the only bus out of Derwent Bridges, where the weather is usually bad... so after an unsuccessful hour of attempting to get a hitch in the rain, we went back to the pub, had a pint...and stayed another night.


The next morning, I was determined to get out of Derwent Bridges and stuck that thumb up in the air with a 10$ smile... and after about 30 min, our 4th or 5th car picked us up... "where you going?"... "out of here... anywhere!" Boy were we happy. And with in 10 min of driving out of rainy, cloudy Derwent Bridges with nothing to do... we were in sunny country roads listening to transcendental meditation music with our new best friend Jonas from Holland.


In New Norfolk, where we got dropped off, we had a nice meal, did some shopping, checked e-mail, and saw this guy with a beautiful mullet... before catching a bus to Hobart.


In Hobart, we recharged our phone, I purchased "Audacity of Hope" and hopped on the bus from back to Lonnie (got the last 2 spots on the bus)... all in the span of 20 min or so.


Back in Lonnie, Vicky from warmshowers picked us up and fed us with a beautiful meal. I had a buzz from being out of Derwent, and eating good food for the next 48 hours...

In conclusion, we both agreed that this hike was worth it… the transport in and out from the hike needs to be significantly improved to keep costs down, but this was a wonderful opportunity to see such a different environment than we are used to. It's a shame that the Overland Track is so popular, and other very beautiful tracks are unheard of... but that is why so much $$$ is required.

Doing this hike made me well aware... and grateful of the Sierras... where the weather is bar-none, the mountains are larger, the tracks are well maintained, fish abundunt, and the hiking is FREE. Seriously folks... if you live close to the Sierras... take advantage of it, it's an amazing mountain range that offers so much. If I lived in Aussie I'd be dreaming of the Sierras everyday...

P.S.... I've had many different opinions on this, and I think my mom was right... I may have a tapeworm... everyone I have stayed or eaten with on this trip has suggested the possibility...