Tequila, Bushwalking, SciFi, Mayhem

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.

We got the gear out, and started putting up the big tent. Not too hard a job in the dark, and it sortof kept us warm in the cold air. Once the tent was fully up, we moved all the gear out of the car in to the tent, and Jim lit up the flourescent lantern and we had the first of a few wee Drams!

Once warmed up a little bit, we all set about putting up our own tents, and getting our sleeping bags and sleeping mats in order - it was going to be an interesting night! Jims thermometer already showed it down to 7?C by the time we had our tents all set.

We sat around snacking, listening to music, and drinking whiskey, and generally not feeling the cold! The moon rose, just past full, lighting the place in eerie silver - very nice!

At this stage my cheapie camping chair suffered a break, and snapped in half! It was still just usable sortof, but it was definately beyond repair.

Midnight rolled around, and as usual it was time for our stroll in to the darkness! We rugged up, gloves & beanies at the ready, and a nightcap of cask strength Glenfiddich in hand, and off we went!

We wandered along the road to the Information Centre, and had a look around, and then wandering in to the dark forbidding rainforest! The path was dark, lit only by torchlight, and only the burbling of the creek nearby was heard.

The path eventually came to Russell Falls - extremely pretty in the moonlight, but also extremely hard to photograph! Eventually we wandered back, still in one piece, and settle in the for the night. We broke out the hot chocolate/milo for a night cap, and headed off to bed.

By this stage it was down to around 4?C and I guessed it’d drop a little bit more before morning.
I had inflated my mattress, and got my sleeping bag positioned right, and off to sleep I went - my thick blanket folded nearby just in case. I soon drifted off to sleep… I woke around 4am, urgently needing a pee, and wandered out in to the bright moonlight looking for a tree - it was COLD!!! then back in to the tent, and soon back to sleep!

Saturday

I woke around 9.30am, after a good nights sleep, it was pretty cool outside the tent, and Jim & Justin were already up.
There wasn’t a cloud in the sky, and the sun didn’t take long to warm me up.

We carted all the breakfast materials down to the BBQ shelter, and proceeded to make ourselves a sumptuous breakfast of fried onions, bacon, eggs and toast (with hot chocolate/coffee).

After this, we carted everything back to the big tent, and then went for a walk to Russell Falls again - this time we stopped at the information centre, and warmed ourselves by their fire for a few minutes while Justin & Jim grabbed a coffee to go.

We wandered along the track to the Falls, and took a few snap shots in daylight this time.

After we got back to the camp, we packed up, and headed off in the car - our destination - the tarns on top of Mt Field.
The trip up was uneventful, and we got to the carpark at the top - disappointingly there was no snow anywhere to be found. The weather was gorgeous, and so we took our time wandering around the tarn, taking photos, and generally appreciating the scenery.

After that we headed back to the car, and drove back down the mountain, stopping to take a few photos at a lookout.

Once we arrived back at the campsite, we had a look around for the open fire BBQs - we found a suitable site, and started moving the curry making gear up to the picnic bench next to it.

We got the fire going in the meantime, and soon it was a roaring fire!

Once the fire had settled down, we started cooking the curry in the huge dutch oven we bought.
First I added some butter, then fried up about 5 or 6 sliced onions, and 3 or 4 cloves of garlic.
Once the onions had reduced and caramelised somewhat, I added the curry paste (one whole 300ml jar of Rogan Josh).
I let the curry paste fry for a bit, then added the cubed beef, which had been preseasoned with salt & black pepper.
I stired it all around, getting the meat brown on all sides. Once the beef was done, I added the two tins of crushed tomato, and cubed potato, added a bit of water, and handful of lentils, and then let the whole lot simmer.

Occasionally we’d lift the lid and stir it around. It was a huge amount of curry!

Meanwhile we’d broken out the Scotch and Coke, and pretty much polished off the entire bottle in an hour…

The curry had been simmering for over an hour and a half, and was almost ready - the beef was almost at that soft flakey texture you need for a curry.

We added the last ingredients, a tin and a half of chick peas - and this time left the lid off, to thicken the sauce a bit - as there was a bit too much liquid remaining.

Finally, the curry was done - testing had shown the meat to be beautifully tender, and the heat level was bloody hot!!! Woohoo!

While the pot rested on the table, I put the lid back on the fire, and toasted some pita breads on it, and smothered them in butter.

We all tucked in - yum! The currey was filling! Hot! Spicey! and delicious!

The temperature was dropping rapidly as we cooked, and by the time we’d cooked dinner and eaten it was down to about 3 degrees…

Luckily we’d brought along some anti-freeze - Jims Talisker and my Glen Fiddich…

We partook of a few drams of the amber liquid, and the temperature hit an all time low of about 0.5?C.

We’d cranked the fire up to a blistering temperature at this stage so weren’t really feeling the cold anyway.
The fire actually go so hot, that once we’d polished off Jims bottle of Talisker, we put the bottle on the fire, to see what would happen. I left the cork in, and it only took about 20 seconds for the cork to disappear in to orbit… the we sat back and watched it slowly melt - the glass actually dripped down the bars and in to the coals - very groovy.

By about midnight it was nealry bedtime - most of the scotch had been drunk, along with some port - it was to cold for a midnight walk, so we packed up the gear from the BBQ area and carted it back to the big tent. The temperature was still hovering around the 0.5?c mark, and a ground fog had settled in - very eerie!

We got back to the big tent and before heading off, we had a nightcap of hot Milo…

It was pretty damed cold in my tent, so before I actually stripped off, I turned on and lit my gas stove and let it run for about 5 minutes - in no time the tent heated up to abot 40?C!!! Perfect for getting dressed and hopping in to my sleeping bag.
I turned off the stove and torch and went to sleep.

About 4am again I woke up needing to pee… I slipped out in to the freezing night air - did my business on the nearest tree and wandered back to the tent - with a slight detour to the thermometer which was still hanging outside where we left it… it showed 0?C!!! Woo!

Back in to the tent where I lit the stove again, got warm, and hopped back in to bed and was soon asleep.

Sunday

I woke up reasonably early this time, and was up and having a stretch in the sun before anyone else was up.
I started carting some of the gear down to the Electric BBQ area, and soon enough both Jim & Justin were up and helping.

The breakfast we had planned would be similar to yesterdays, but with the addition of sausages & potatos!
Jim slided up the onions and a few cloves of garlic - I sliced up the potatos in to thin slices, and we threw them on to the BBQ…

Once the onions & potatos were half done, we put the bacon, eggs and sausages on to cook as well…

Soon enough everything was done, and while Jim & Justin got the plates loaded up, I fried up three sliced of sourdough bread to have with it.

Yummy! Apart from the sausages, which to me, tasted a bit off…

After brekkie, we had a few morning coffees/milos, then went to burn off the calories with a walk…

We wandered along to Russell Falls again, but this time, we detoured up to the top of the Falls as well.
It was a nice walk, and fairly soon we were at the top.
Here you could either turn around and walk back down or walk along the Tall Trees walk - which we decided to do.
It was very pretty and scenic and a lovely walk. We got to the other end and decided rather than walk all the way back, we’d just shortcut it down the road…

The walk back took 20 minutes, and wasn’t all that taxing.

We had a bit of a rest for a while, and then it was time to pack up and go home…

Packing up was fun (not) and took us around 2 hours, and a lot of swearing and sweating…

Eventually we got the gear all stowed into the car and we headed off.
The trip home was uneventuful, and I dropped Justin & Jim off home, and headed home myself.

We’d done it - a proper (cold) winter trek!

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