Walking Tasmania

This morning’s start was a little different.  I had to wade the ford over the Ouse River before setting off to climb the hill out of the valley – opposite the one I came down last night.  The water was not as deep as it had been when Merran and I scouted this a few weeks ago, still it was a bit fresh on my feet as I waded through.

The hill was quite a climb but I eventually made it up towing my ‘trekkers friend’.  I was ‘encouraged’ to hear from a passing logging worker that there was another one further on, which Merran and I had not really taken in on our ‘reci’ drive. 

Once over the top I was into sheep and cattle country.  The log trucks which had been a feature of the last few kms mysteriously vanished and all was very quiet on the road pretty well right through to Victoria Valley, where I was aiming to camp.  I passed probably only three dwellings in 20+kms of walking, lonely country in which to live!

Walking on ‘Bashan’ road, I had to smile at the number of significant bulls I saw (Cf Psalm 22:12). Two cyclists I met and camped with later in the day had also noticed the size and number of bulls further down the road and had commented on this during the evening. They had never heard of the biblical reference.

Pulling into the Victoria Valley campsite in fairly good time for a big day, I began to set up in the Tasmanian Trail shed as it was sheltered from the wind. But just before put the tent up, two German sisters, cycling Tassie, (after NZ and before the mainland) rode in. I felt they had more need of the shelter than me so I set up outside instead. We had a fascinating evening talking about their travels and mine, the trail to come (we were travelling in opposite directions) and elements of religion and politics.

Awake early at Arthurs Lake, I packed and took a short cut along the lake shore heading to the Road House to pay my camping fee…. and maybe even buy a hot breakfast. It turned out a mistake to think the lake shore would be easier than the track – wet muddy and hardwork. Still the breakfast made all things right with the world – even delivered in a heated eating area.

From then it was a walk down the remainder of Poatina Rd to meet the Highland Lakes road. This was followed by a short walk back up the Highlands Lakes road a km or so and onto the Shannon – Waddamana – Victoria Valley back road – mostly called Bashan Road. This was much more pleasant walking and I could ditch my ‘hi vis’ vest which for safety reasons I had used on the more major roads.

The sadness on this stretch was finding no less than 5 wombats, the result of road kill! (Three more the next day)… Thankfully the kangaroo I collected on the same stretch a few days before was only shocked and I imagine, somewhat bruised, as he/she certainly took off! More damage to the plastic bumper of my car than to him/her. I wondered how protecting these wonderful creatures could work better. This made N T Wright’s work on Romans 8 and the ‘groaning’ of creation, something I had been listening to a few days, all the more relevant.

A lunch stop just shy of Penstock Lagoon and I was ready for the road again. This section was mental preparation for the long 5km downhill run to the ford over the Ouse river below the Waddamana power station. Merran and I had spied this spot out a couple of weeks ago and it looked like an OK place for a wild camp just off the road.

Part of my work is teaching ‘resilience’ – this journey is a little bit of a working lesson in that subject. There is a concept in the resilence literature called ‘grit’ – ‘the drive to sustain progress toward a goal over the long haul despite difficulty and hardship’! Around a corner, on my long knee-challenging downhill stretch, and there it was, just to remind me.

Then my little moment of grace and joy. A 4WD camping truck coming the other way pulled up and the couple stopped to say “hi”. They had passed me earlier in the day wearing my ‘hi vis’ and now came across me again many kms down the road. They were also keen walkers have done the Camino in Spain last year. “Here! have a couple of cold fresh apples for the journey”. It might just have been the time and place but I swear they were the best apples I have ever eaten.

It was time to set up for the night right on the Ouse river. I was surprised by two unexpected aspects of the night. One, the number of logs trucks on the road right through the night. I was woken by one at midnight and another at 3.00am. Then they were non stop from about 5.30am the next morning. I wondered if they were part of the story behind the number of wombats lost on the road.

And two – the distant rolling thunder of the wind turbines above me on Bashan Hill. Even though they were some distance away, there was plenty of wind, they were in full action and the sound had me looking around for a storm.

We woke on Monday morning to snow at Shannon.  While there was definitely a chill in the air the day looked quite clear and walking beckoned.  The repair job on the car looked OK and Merran was happy to drive it home from Blackwood Creek. I felt that if I didn’t bite the bullet today, I would get too far behind and find restarting a challenge. Back to the trail it was to be. We nipped in to the Penstock Campsite at Athurs Lake and set up my tent in the hope that I might, even with a late start, pull off a 29km day including 1260m climbing and 600m downhill.  I called my associate Luke and he agreed to be a standby pickup person if I really was not going to make it. 

The Caves track involves a creek crossing right at the start. There is a bit of time lost in drying feet and pulling on hiking socks and shoes – this done I was on my way.  The track is quite a fun walk and was the original road up onto the Tiers before the Poatina hydro works were built in the 1950s.  The ‘caves’ of the track are a series of sandstone overhangs which are quite impressive.  With so much water around they were also home to several waterfalls.  I really enjoyed this section of the trail and got to the top around midday.  A quick breather in my trusty helinox chair and I was ready to put down some serious kms (22) in the afternoon. 

I thought it wise to push lunch back a bit and try to get 7-8 kms complete before resting and eating,  Poatina Road to Arthurs Lake is a long walk which I had, again, not been looking forward to. Again it turned out not to be too bad and there was not a lot of traffic to contend with.  Lunch stop at the Cramps Bay turnoff for those who know it. 

Marching on for much of the afternoon, I got to the Jonah bay road which enabled me then to follow a hydro tower maintenance road through to the campsite about 5 kms away.  There were lots of deer tracks around the road verges as I walked, although I missed seeing any.  The only catch with this quiet road was an unexpected weir crossing.  So, changing back to my river crossing ‘crocs’ to get through and back into my walking shoes for the second time – this time to finish the day.  I made the campsite by 6.00pm, cooked dinner and settled in for the night.  No one else in a large campsite! Perhaps it was the wind and cold keeping them away.

Deciding to stay out of the weather on Friday by having a day back home, turned out to be a wise move.  The wind and water did end up causing significant damage across the North of the state.  In fact, sadly two people lost their lives right in my home community due to a falling tree.  While we did not suffer major damage, the storm shorted out one of our external gas hot water systems.  Having also discovered that our dishwasher’s intake value was malfunctioning we realised we might have some work to do.  By Saturday morning I was keen to get back on track but the weather was still not ideal.  We decided to head out anyway and stay at a friend’s place in the Central Highlands.  I would walk the 7 kms to the base of the Caves Track on Saturday afternoon and we would return on Sunday for me to do the climb and continue down the Poatina road. 

The 7kms was a fun walk and then we drove up the mountain and through the highlands.  It was cold and windy as predicted and we drove in to the cottage at Shannon in the late afternoon while snow swirled around us.

Things cleared a bit by early evening and as one possible route over the next few days took me down to a ford over the Ouse river, 12kms away, we decided on a careful reconnaissance drive – careful due to the large number of animals on the road in the evenings.  But… not careful enough.  Even though we were driving at about 60kmh, a kangaroo doing a last minute dash across the road collected the front of our Subaru and pushed the front panels right in.  Hmm!  Now to add this to the things needing to be sorted before getting back on track!  I limped the car back to Shannon and thought about how to find a way to push the dents back out and tie everything up to make the car drivable. 

So today was spent under, over, and in the front of the car, pouring hot water on the front and side panels and trying to bend them back into shape.  Eventually I managed to find a way to remove the driving light and could get a lever in behind the main panel to force it back (roughly) into its correct profile.  Then zip-ties (from my trusty emergency kit) to hold the various panels together and we are back on the road. 

All this likely means another day at home arranging repairs and resetting my pilgrimage journey.  Pilgimages, Merran and I know from experience, always present the unexpected and we need to be flexible and adaptable.  Thankfully even at 120+kms in, I am still within range of home.  One of my commitments on setting out had been to attend to things at home over things on the road if the need for this arose.  This may well be one of those moments. 

I’ll be back!

Heavy rain on Thursday morning put a damper on my planned early start.  I sat under my tarp with everything else packed up for quite a while hoping for a respite.  It wasn’t to be.  So I shook out my tarp as best I could and stowed it in my day pack not wanting to open my main rucksack which was ready with wheels attached.

The rain was intermittent all morning, wind and moments of sunshine, a typical Tassie spring day.  I enjoyed the walk through the farms and forests of Liffey, passing Bob Brown’s Oura Oura reserve on the way.  Creeks were overflowing as they rushed down the banks to join the Liffey river which wound through the base of the valley.  A mist covered Dry’s Bluff hovered over the region.  By lunch I had emerged from the forests to the open plains underneath the Western Tiers and stopped out of the rain for a break in the porch of the old Liffey Schoolhouse, a documented trail stop. 

I had contact with Merran there and she informed me of severe weather predicted for the next few days – wind, rain and snow.  My planned rest day at the base of Caves track looked a little dubious.  We made the decision for her to collect me at the end of the day and I would walk as far through to Blackwood Creek as I could.

Fascinating the little connections one makes on the way.  As part of the pilgrimage, I had decided to stop and have a friendly chat with anyone open for a conversation where and whenever these opportunities presented themselves.  A farmer stopped for a quick check out of who I was and where I was going, and we got talking about places in Tassie.  Turned out he was born in Sheffield (by accident) in 1967 while his mother was enroute by car from Launceston to the West Coast.   When I suggested the name of the doctor and the small maternity hospital, Sheffield’s well known Dr Leslie Sender, he jumped with surprise!  He recalled his mother crediting his safe arrival to the quick hands-on skill of this Sheffield GP.  There would not have been a family that did not know the care of this doctor right through the fifties, sixties and seventies in Sheffield.  He delivered me in the same maternity hospital and patched me up on many an occasion through my childhood.