Tequila, Bushwalking, SciFi, Mayhem

2010 : Wineglass Bay

Trek Date: 18 January 2010

Well the first TasTrek of 2010 is done and dusted.

It’s been a long while between treks - nearly 18 months - so I did wonder at the level of pain & discomfort we’d be in for… but that’s never stopped us before! :)

This time it was just three of us, myself, Mike & Sienna - on her first bushwalk!
She’s been on many camping trips with me, but never a bushwalk - it would be exciting for her. As the days got closer she was nearly jumping out of her skin with excitement.

Finally Saturday morning rolled around, and we were ready to go. Mike arrived at 8am, and we got everything in to the car. My back weighed in at 23kg - not too bad for me. Mikes was the same, and Siennas weighed 5kg.

The drive up was pretty uneventful - we stopped at Sorell for McBrekkie and an energy drink. We also stopped for a leg stretch at Swansea which was nice - it was about 25'C and very sunny and warm.

It was then as we drove out of Swansea we realised we couldn’t actually see The Hazards… which are usually very visible. All we could see was grey… dark grey clouds…

The closer we got the greyer it got… we arrived at the check in spot to purchase a parks pass, and it was lightly sprinkling with rain. We stuck the pass on the car and headed around to the carpark.

Sienna was hoping to see some animals - particularly wallaby's, paddymelons and possums - well she need not have worried - there was one sunning itself on the bank behind our car! She went over and introduced herself, and made friends with it. She got to pat it, stratch it, and generally become its best friend.

Soon we had to go - Mike & I loaded up our backpacks, got Siennas backpack on, and off we went - but not too far, as Sienna needed to go to the toilet, so we dumped our packs, and took her for a wee.

So, we loaded up again, and off we went.

It had been a while since we’d done the Saddle, so I was a bit lost - they have re-done the path up to the lookout - there are now TWO tracks. One completely new one and the older one.

We took the new track to see what it would be like. As it turns out - very easy. Mike & I commented on how we didn’t seem to be too sore or tired. Half way up there is a new lookout, looking back at Coles Bay - very nice!

We made it to the top quite easily with not too many stops - only to remove a few rocks from Sienna shoes… oh, and Sienna got tired carrying her backpack, so I had to carry that too! :(

Read more: 2010 : Wineglass Bay

2008 : Fortescue Bay

Well we survived the trek to Fortescue Bay by the skin of our teeth. Even though the weather and some hardware conspired against us - we prevailed and had a great time anyway!

Day 1 - Friday

The trek started gently enough - I had the day off, so I stayed home, looked after the boys in the morning, and leisurely packed my gear, and waited for everyone to turn up.

Mike arrived a little after 3pm, he and I head off to the Aberfeldy to stock up on beer, once we get back we loaded the gear in to the car. Jim rang and said he & Lone were on the way. I rang Justin and told him that Mike would pick him up, and we’d all meet at Sorell.

Mike headed off to grab Justin, and about 10 minutes later Jim & Lone arrived. We through the last bit of gear in her car and headed off.

The drive to Sorell was uneventful, and we met at the Purity carpark, and disappeared inside to grab breakfast fixings and last minute snacks etc.

We come outside load the cars up again, and decide to head to McDonalds for dinner - only to find that McDonalds is full, and has a queue a mile long - not good. So we walk across the road to a Fish’n'Chip shop - only to find they’ve turned off their BainMaries and haven’t got anything on the go. Fuckit we say, we’ll eat at Fortescue. Jim needs beer and we need ice, so we head off in search of a Bottleshop - Sorell has none (well none we can find) - so we head to the local pub and buy everything over the counter.

Read more: 2008 : Fortescue Bay

2006 : Mt Field

Well this trip, Mike would be missing, as his flu had gotten the better of him, so there was just the three of us, myself, Jim & Justin.
We got all our tents and equipment packed up on Thursday evening, and we were all set for heading off Friday afternoon.

Friday

Jim and I knocked off early and headed home to shove everything in the boot of the car, then headed off to grab Justin.
On arrival at Justins we loaded up the rest of the gear, and headed off to New Norfolk.

After a quick stop in to see my Mum, we headed around to Woolworths to get the essential Curry making ingredients!
Meat, Onions, Potatos, plus a whole stack of snacks and other essentials. Once we jammed that in to the car we drove around the corner to the Roost, and had a quick dinner of roast chicken, chips, (and gravy & seasoning for some).

We got to Mt Field without incident, and drove around the park trying to find a decent spot to camp. A likely spot was found, not too far from the river, and fairly close to the toilet & shower block and to the Electric BBQ area. It was too dark to scout around to see where the open fire BBQs were.

Read more: 2006 : Mt Field

2007 : Lake Pedder

Lake Pedder Mini-Trek :: Done!

The trek started off as a small scouting trip to see if it was worthwhile visiting for two nights or so - so a quick overnighter is all that was planned.

Minimal gear, no tents apart from the the large one, head up at lunchtime on Saturday, and come back on Sunday at lunch.

Well I got all my gear packed on Saturday morning by about 10am, by which time Mike had arrived. We threw everything in the boot and headed off to grab Jim.
Jim grabbed his gear, card table, and we managed to rearrange the boot enough to get it all in there - Justins gear would have to sit between us. We got to Justins and loaded his gear in and off we went.

First port of call was the Brooker Inn to get grog! We picked up a slab of Kilkenny irish Ale, a small bottle of white wine, a bottle of red, and a 4 pack of Boddingtons English Ale (a pot luck guess as no-one had heard of it).
It was about 1/2 way to New Norfolk we realised that we hadn’t brought the Dutch Oven - so our dinner of sumptuous Irish Stew was off. Instead we called in to Purity in New Norfolk and basically bought the makings of a steak fried dinner - Steak, Onions, Eggs, Bacon - the usual good stuff! We also stocked up on numerous snacks and so forth.

Read more: 2007 : Lake Pedder

2006 : Esperance

Well we survived yet another Trek…
This was going to be an interesting trek - heading to a spot we hadn’t heard of (and only one of us had been to). I check the weather and it wasn’t looking good - a weekend of rain, basically.
The usual Thursday evening packing event preceded the trek, and we got everything packed and into Mikes car reasonably easily. The hard part would be the following day, getting Justins gear in to the boot as well…

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Friday rolled around, and Justin, Jim, and myself got a lift with Mike from town to home. We got the boot packed - just - and headed off around 6.30ish…
We stopped at Kingston to grab a few last minute supplies, which were going to be a tight fit, as we we already busting at the seams. I zipped off to the butchers to grab a bit of steak for dinner, along with mince for the chilli. We then went in to the supermarket to grab snacks, water, and anything else of value, and lastly popped in to the bottleshop to grab some Tooheys Extra Dry Platinum for a nightcap, along with 2 bags of ice. We headed off… The weather was pretty cool at this stage, and got cooler and wetter the further south we got.
About an hour and a half later we arrived, Mike parked the car, and we began to cart all the camping gear around to a picnic shelter - it was starting to rain…

Read more: 2006 : Esperance