The only thing I had arranged before arriving to Australia was a 7 day trek in Tasmania. It's called The Overland track and it passes through inland of Tasmania over 65km plus the sidetreks. It's completely self supported. You need to carry everything with you both in and out. No shops or dining places. There are some huts to sleep, but they can be full, so tent is kinda mandatory. And your cooking gear. Fire is forbidded.
Despite knowing all this I of course underprepared as usual. But then again I went on this treck together with 5 Germans! And you know what they say about the Germans :) For the record, the crew was Sabine, my friend from Brussels, his brother Mirko, cousin Berna, and the brother's two friends Juergen and Betti.
So, yeah, I was reading this long list of things suggested to bring to the treck with you in order to survive and a made my own selection of it. I did buy gaiters, to protect your calves and pants while going through the mud or over the tree roots, bushes and they are helpful for occasional poisoneus snake bites. So I already felt like hard core hiker having those. I contemplated over buying waterproof pants, but the 80 dollar ones where not in my size and 200 bucks is just too much. Better just cross it from the list.
9pm in the evening before leaving the next morning, I realised that it really sucks that I don't have any sleeping mat to put under my superlight summer sleeping bag. I read in the guide again that one should expect to snow any time of year in the Tasmanian mountains, so all of the sudden I was really worried. It's the best to realise such things late at night before taking the plane.
But in Mirko's place at the time there was another of his German friends who naturally does have a sleeping mat, so I went over and begged him.
Out of cooking gear/cutlery I had a fork and a swiss army knife, so I considered myself good to go.
Plane to Tassie. Immediate drop in temperature about 8 degrees. Transfer to the camping site at the beginning of the track. Rain. Rain. Rain. Luckily got a hut and did not need to sleep out in the tent.
By the next morning the weather had changed. It was raining even more. Despite the conditions we were in good mood. I think we walked 5 hours that day and about 5 minutes of it there was no rain. Soon enough the track as such ceased to exist as it had turned into streams of water. Sometimes more like a little river. After 3 hours my boots where turned into a swimming pool so my feet enjoyed spa treatment, as did the rest of the body...rainproof jacket from Nepal could not deal with Tasmanian weather either.
For 5 seconds there was sunshine. You could get a glimpse of how beautiful it MUST be when its good weather.
Equally pleasant view that day was the sight of the hut to sleep. It was so packed as there was no single person who would be crazy enough to prefer sleeping in a tent. So all 35 people who are allowed to start the overland track in one day, where gathered there. Wet clothes hanging everywhere and wet boots surrounding the heater which did not work as it was above 10 degrees. But at least the existence of the heater provides moral support.
Next morning though, the boots were still soaking wet and the weather was the same. But my clothes were almost dry! Imagine that.
Day 2 was a short day anyway and close to the end it stopped raining. I was really glad though that even when the conditions where pretty shitty, we all kept a good mood, there was constant laughter and overall positive attitutude.
Magically from the third day onwards the weather made a complete change, blue sky and sunshine all through the next days. And thats when you really start to appreciate the landscape. It was amazing. Real wilderness. Its completely different floora and fauna than I have ever seen before. The fact that they only let 35 people to start the treck each day also means that most of the time you are walking by yourself with no other persons in view.
We did two peaks as well, one of them, Mt Ossa, being the highest peak of Tasmania, 1617m. On top of that I felt that there is no way to describe the view. Honestly, words would just diminish it. I had wondered if after Himalaya Tasmania can really impress me. It can and it did. Just to give you an idea, here is one link I found on google with the view: http://www.lukeobrien.com.au/images/ossa.jpg
So the days were beautiful and the evenings really funny. I introduced massage sessions so we all get some relaxation to our backs and shoulders. The nights were a bit tough in my summer sleeping bag on a small mattrass. It also turned out the mattrass is a bit broken, so when letting the air in, there is a huge air bubble in the middle. So either you sleep on a little mountain under your back or hip or just hardly put any air in ... but I can rough it out for a while no problem.
The food started to ran out as well. Its pretty hard to plan for the whole week! But some nice people left free food behind and as I have had a good soviet upbringing, I immediately took anything there is to take. It helped other girls as well, as their bread went all bad and so on. It's good to have guys in the group. They bring loads of snacks. Nah, not only for that. They also carry the heavy stuff. :) Just kidding.
All in all we did 94km. On the 7th day we completed the treck by finishing in Lake St Claire camping site. We reached the overpriced restaurant, put down our bags and didnt get further to our huts before 10pm perhaps. 8 dollar beer tasted too good for that. And we surely had an excuse to celebrate.
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