Tequila, Bushwalking, SciFi, Mayhem
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2005 : Freycinet Nat Park
Trek Date: January 2004
Day 1 - Friday
Well Friday was a gorgeous sunny day, and everyone’s camping gear had been packed the previous night, ready to be picked up, thrown in the boot, and off we go.
Justin & Jim arrived at the KeyPoint office at 5pm, and we headed off to the car.
We picked Nina up on the way, and zipped home to load up the backpacks, and grab Mike. We ended up with a very full car boot, but we managed to get away by 6pm.
We stopped to grab some fuel in town, and drove to Sorell.
Here we stopped to grab some provisions for the evening, and a bit of a snack. I got some limes, some chips, and a soft-serve IceCream (which I ate while waiting for the guys to come out of Woolworths).
The drive up was reasonably uneventful, and with some good driving music on hand :D , we got to Bicheno around 9pm.
The cabin was rather cute - small, with one double bed, and a three tiered bunk arangement. We dumped our gear and proceeded to hit the town in search of takeaways, food, etc…
Well, as it turns out, Bicheno shuts down at 9pm - not a single place was open. :( So we drove back to the cabin, dug out everything we’d brought along, and proceeded to have a sumtuous meal of Microwaved Donuts, BBQ Shapes, Chilli Kettle Chips, and Jelly Babies for desert.
To wash this fabulous meal down, we had Tequila. So we whipped up some Lemon Margeritas, and when we ran out of margerita mix, we did a few lick, sip, sucks, then we tried mixing Tequila & RedEye (whoa!) - by the time we were ready to hit the sack, we’d polished off 3/4 of a bottle of Sauza Gold tequila. :P
Day 2 - Saturday
Saturday dawned gorgeous! Blue sky, no clouds, cool, but a hint of a warm day approaching. 6am we woke up, and by 7.30am we were up, fed showered and ready to go.
We drove to Coles Bay, stopped at the local Bakery, to grab some breakfast, and last minute water. I decided a freshly baked Egg & Bacon pie would make a nice breakfast, but as it turns out, it didn’t agree with me (more on this later).
So, stocked up, we zipped around to the Car park, loaded up, and began the trek.
The air temperature was cool, and the sun was pretty much behind the rocky Hazards, so it was ideal walking weather.
The trek had proceeded for about 15 minutes, when we stopped for a breather, and I started feeling ill. I had the spins, and cold sweats (not the normal hot sweat!), and nausea - I was sure I was gonna hurl…
After about 10 minutes I started feeling better, no hurlage happened, and by 10am we’d made our way to the top of the saddle (plus a quick zip up to the Lookout for a photo or two…)
We only rested shortly here, and then headed down the other side, and again, rested, this time on the beach at Wineglass Bay.
Here we rested for another 20 minutes, and headed off across the isthmus to Hazards beach, which only took us 25 minutes - we were making record time. It was at this point in time, I decided that as I was still feeling crook, that instead of going through to Cooks Beach, we’d camp at Hazards, and walk down the next day - that turned out to be a good decision.
With only a short breather at the start of Hazards Beach, we slogged down the soft sandy beach (hard work too!), and arrived at the Hazards Beach camping ground around lunchtime. We set up tents, hammocks, and gear, and proceeded to have a nice lunch.
After lunch we constructed our “Tripod Of Doom”(tm), to appease the “Gods”(tm) and keep the “Nasty Weather”(tm) away… it “sort of worked”(tm)…
The weather was warm, and we were still a bit stuffed after the walk there, so we decided a dip was in order. Justin, Mike & myself hopped in to the cold water for a bit of a splash about, and some water frisbee…
Once we had swam away the aches & pains, we retired to the campsite to rest, and hang about. We finally put together out fishing rods & gear and went down to the rocky shoreline, and had a bit of a cast about to see what was biting… not a lot apparently.
What we did find was apparently the Water Bogans Association of Tasmania had decided to camp out a Hazards as well, so there were dozens of motorboats, powering up and down the coast, ruining any chance of catching a fish. Not only that but we spied a rare (and quite large) sting ray skimming along the bottom of the water, and the motorboat-bogans decided it’d be fun the hassle it, then try to spear it… thankfully they didn’t hit the ray…
So after some fruitless fishing, we settled down for a nice camp dinner, and whiled away the hours, and Justin found out that his new Gas Cylinder for his stove would’nt light. Gas was coming out, but we couldn’t light it.
After dinner - out came “The Doctor”!
“The Doctor” Lemon Margeritas certainly helped the aches and pains fade away, and along with a few Lick/Sip/Sucks using Cuervo 1800, we were feeling no pain whatsoever!
The weather started turning really nasty (it had been getting progressively greyer & darker as the evening wore on) - it looked like it was about to storm & rain! so it was time to hit the sleeping bags…
Luckly we were anchored down pretty well! - the storm that hit was a doozy - wind & rain for most of the night! I did manage to get some sleep, even though my back wasn’t all that comfortable…
Day 3 - Sunday
Well I woke up several times during the night, a few times due to rain/wind on my tent, and a few times whilst trying to get comfy on the hard ground. Eventually I got out of bed around 9am when I heard everyone else scurrying around outside…
We sat around having breakfast for a while, and trying to get the cricks out of our necks & backs from the nights sleep…
It was a pretty grey day, and we didn’t really do much for the rest of the morning, just lazed about, and the breakfast stretched out in to a lazy lunch as well. We eventually decided that we’d get a bit of a stretch, and do some fishing, and walk to Cook Beach, where we had previously intended to stay. So after lunch we embarked on the 1 hour walk to Cooks Beach.
We arrived, and checked out our old camping grounds, which were deserted. I managed to find an old chopping board I took down last time buried next to a tree… it was still in reasonable condition after a year buried in dirt…
We decided that instead of getting straight in to the fishing, we’d walk to the bottom end of Cooks Beach, something that we’d never done before…
The bottom end of the beach wasn’t all that exciting - but we did find a bunch of bogans who obviously couldn’t read. There were Park signs around saying “No Firearms”,”No Dogs”,”No Open Fires”,”No Cutting Down Standing Trees” - usually this was all on the one sign - well THESE guys didn’t take notice of ANY of that… we found a few 12 gauge shotguns shells on the beach, plus they were in the process of chopping down a tree for their open fires, we didn’t see a dog anywhere, but he was probably off hunting down native wildlife… I dunno…
Whilst Jim & I rested on the beach for a bit, Justin & Mike venture in to the forest a bit to look for Cooks Cabin, a possible camping cabin we can use next time. They found it, and it looks very promising!!
The cabin looked very solid, it would hold 10 or so people, and had some tank water…
We then trundled back up Cooks Beach to the top end where we normally fish, and proceeded to do just that.
I managed to get a strong bite (but no hookup) on my first cast, and actually landed a Wrass on my 3rd cast… awesome! I caught another one a few minutes later, but both of them were too small (and not good eating anyway), so back in they went.
Mike caught a baby Wrass as well, and Justin got a few good nibbles - but that was about it for the afternoon, with no other bites, nibbles or fish to be seen.
We did see some more ‘Rays though:
Two of them swam past our fishing spot.
A while later we headed back to Hazards, after catching no fish at all worth eating.
The walk back was uneventful, but we did spy a chunky Wombat on his way somewhere…
The day was pretty grey for most of it, but as sunset approached, it lightened up a little, with a few patches of blue showing through.
Lucky we’d brought food (in case the fishing was poor!), and so we settled down for another campside meal.
After dinner I went down to the shoreline to have a bit of a fish with my new slice lure - not much luck, but I did manage to see a squid following my lure in just as I was pulling it out of the water…
After dinner, we were once again visited by the doctor - this time Tequila & Orange Juice, and a few Lick/Sip/Sucks as well…
Late in the evening Jim, Mike & myself decided to walk down to the beach to stretch our legs, whilst Justin stayed behind, relaxing in my Hammock.
We were feeling pretty buggered after an energetic day, and hit the sack around midnight.
Day 4 - Monday
I managed to have a better nights sleep this time, and woke up in a reasonably ok state. The weather this day looked promising - low grey clouds that appeared to be burning off as the morning progressed.
We had breakfast, and again lazed about a bit - I decided to try out a theory. I found my hammock so comfy, that I was toying with the idea of sleeping in my sleeping bag, whilst IN my hammock… (with some type of tent/fly arrangment over the top) - so I dragged out my sleeping bag, threw it in to the hammock, and climbed in. Wow! Really comfortable and warm… I’m going to have to try it next time…
Eventually we started packing up our camp, and putting away tents etc… and pretty soon, we were ready to leave. By this stage the day was looking very nice - scattered clouds, a nice breeze, and about 22?C.
The walk back was uneventful, just tiring - but we eventually made it to the Wineglass Bay beach, and had a good rest before we tackled the saddle return.
The saddle (to me at least) didn’t seem all that difficult this time - maybe because I was only bringing back 1/2 of what I took down. It was still damned ard work though. Especially these stairs:
But eventually we all got to the top, and from there it’s only a 20 minute walk, trip & tumble down to the carpark.
Once we’d all arrived at the carpark, we zipped around to the local shop to grab the essentials! Coke, Chocolate, Chips, anything unhealthy…
We drove back to Hobart, had a few stop & stretch breaks, and got in around 8pm, and Nina went and got us KFC to revive us… boy were we stiff & sore.
And thus ended our big trip…
If you want to see ALL the photos follow this link: Gallery