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2005 : Freycinet Nat Park
Jims Trek Diary:
The date was the 23rd of January 2004, the time was approx. 17:50pm and four dedicated trekkers were about to embark on another pilgrimage to the eastern lands of Freycinet.
Those joining the quest were: Jim Woodward (Me), Richard Stewart, Justin Plunkett & Mike Rodway.
We got packed up and stuffed everythign that would fit into the car, jumped in and proceeded on our way.
Our first stop was at Woolworths in Sorell, where last minute supplies and snacks were purchased, I purchased some Mizone energy water, some Powerade, half a dozen donuts, some Kettle chilli chips, plain chocolate and smarties chocolate (yumm), 2 bottles of cocacola oh and a few limes.
We then all jumped back in the car and proceeded on the near 3hr drive to Bicheno where we would stay the night before embarking on our venture to Freycinet.
We arrive at Bicheno at 8:45pm on the 23rd and proceed to check in and pay for our nights accomodation. We then proceed to look for a prevayor of food, as it turns out - everything shuts at 9:00pm and we get to see everything shut before our eyes.. GOD DAMN IT!
So we proceed grumpily back to the cabin and make do with what we have, we unpack all our snacks and stuff - start saring them out - we watched National Lampoons Vegas vacation on TV as we proceeded to eat a dinner of: BBQ Meat lovers flavoured Shapes, reheated donuts, chips & jelly babies for desert.. ugh..
We then broke out the Tequila (Sausza gold) and had some shots with a lime we purchased earlier, some salt etc etc..
We then made up soem lemon margerita mix and proceeded to drink some rather strongly mixed drinks, when we ran out of the lemon mix, we tried Red Eye - my god.. talk about funky shit..
We then pack up and get some sleep, which turns out to be pretty damned hard to do.
24th Jan 2004: Day 1 of the trek.
So we wake up at 7:00am, get showered, get ready, clean up and do some final packing.. we load up the car and start off.. we arrive at Coles Bay at around 7:30am and get some food - Salad rolls, pies etc.. I got myself a Savory roll which was quite tasty, Richard got himself a egg and bacon pie that was later to cause him some serious grief.
I cant remember what Justin and Mike proceeded to get.
After that we proceeded to go to the Freycinet national park carpark where we would unpack and get suited up ready for the walk - we start the walk around 8:30-8:40am.
about 15-20 mins into the journey, Richard starts getting the cold sweats and feels crook, we deduct that its probably a mild case of food positioning (mild? not sure) we stop for a while and rest, Richard starts to feel a bit better so we proceed onward, we make it to the top of the saddle and take off our packs and rest. Richard, Mike & Justin go for a look at the lookout and take some pics, I stay with the packs and climb up on one of the large boulders to look out over the bushaldn and Wineglass bay through the trees.
We stay there for a further 10-15 minutes before starting our steady paced trek down the other side towards Wineglass Beach, we arrive at approximately 10:40am and stay till around 11:00am when we proceed to venture along the track towards Hazards Beach.. we arrive just before 12:00am - stopping briefly before proceeding down the beach for another hours walk.
We finally make it to the usual campsite location at Hazards, but people have already taken all the good spots and in the interest of peace between our fellow campers we go looking further.
I put my pack down and we go for a scout.. Richard, Justin & Mike believe theyve found a spot, I go back to grab my pack and notice water leaking out of it.. Im filled with a cold feeling of dread :sad: and proceed to strip the pack down there and then and notice my large 2 gallon water bag is leaking!
:angry:
So i pull everything out and have noticed that ive lost about a litre to a litre and a half of water, and a number of things are WET!!
Jeez, so i gather my stuff, (wet and all) and move it piece by piece towards the final campsite, hang the sleepign bag over a tree to dry the bits that got wet.. luckily i had packed most things in plastic bags and the change of clothes was bone dry.
I then proceeded to eat the Chicken salad roll that I had purchased earlier that day and relax.
We started setting up camp, it was a pleasant and sunny 21-22C and there were a number of people on the beach and out in the water in boats, Canue’s and swimming.
Justin, Mike & Richard decide to go for a swim, im thinking NO WAY too COLD!! (21 isnt warm ya know)
apon finishing up, we sit down to cook dinner, get out our gas burners, pots, pans, plates etc..
Justin find out that his brand new gas bottle is pooched and wont keep a lit flame :angry:, after much cursing we share the three gas cannisters that we have left between us and cook, I had a meal called ‘Thai chicken curry’ whcih as it tiuned out was a little ordinary the others had variations of istant meals to meals made up of peas, corn and instant mash :laughing:
Following dinner we break out ‘The Doctor’ and proceed to make Lemon margeritas with fresh lime juice and a mixture of Jose Cuevo 1800 and Sauza gold, this goes down very well, especiallyw hen followed by tequila shots :smile:
We didnt stay up too much after that, we were in our tents for an early night around 9:30pm and the temperate dropped pretty sharp, during the night the storms came through bringing cold wind rain and everything.. didnt look good..
[to be continued]