Day: 02
Date: Saturday, 19 October 2019
Start: Geeveston
Finish: Stony Ridge Conservation Area
Daily Kilometres: 38.0
Total TT Kilometres: 70.4
Weather: Cold and squally in the morning, partly sunny in the afternoon.
Accommodation: Tent
Nutrition:
Breakfast: Cooked breakfast
Lunch: Snickers and Mars bars
Dinner: Soup and rehydrated meal
Aches: Exhausted overall and feet particularly sore. Running nose and constant coughing ….. maybe man-flu, but more likely spring allergies
Highlight: The beautiful and peaceful walk down a rural road following Dickensons Creek to the Huon valley.
Lowlight: Very tired/sore feet took the gloss off some of the beautiful scenery. I'm wearing trail shoes instead of my normal boots, and maybe that has something to do with it. This is a trial for next year's big hike where trail shoes make more sense with a lot of river fords. Goretex boots, once wet, take a long time to dry.
Map and Position: Click here for Google Map
Journal:
There were three mountain-bikers also having breakfast at the B&B. They were on the last day of a ride down the Tasmanian Trail from Devonport. They warned me that finding somewhere off the trail to camp north of Judbury later today might be a challenge (and it did). The trail is primarily designed for equestrians and mountain-bikers, and during the day I encountered, separately, two very fit-looking female bikers riding strongly up the mountains. I also later met a couple of young guys labouring up the mountain who looked like their trip may have been planned last night in the pub. There was all manner of baggage hanging off their bikes, including a large duffel bag strapped to one's handlebars.
My day started with a very pleasant climb past farms and orchards on a road that was very quiet apart from the dogs I stirred up while passing. Fortunately, none of them came out to greet me on the road in person.
Eventually, the gravel road entered a mix of forests, much of it burn-damaged, with a couple of clear-felled sections that allowed views to distant snow-capped mountains after a steep climb. It was very cold on the ridge and some wind-blasted hail made it feel very wintry. However, once the trail began to descend, it was sheltered from the wind and the sun made an occasional appearance.
It was a beautiful long rural walk down into the Huon valley (see above), marred only by some sore feet. Once in the valley, I crossed the Huon River at 3:30pm and reached a sports field at Judbury that was the nominated Tasmanian Trail campsite for this 28km section. Given that it was a long haul (40km) from here to tomorrow night's stop at New Norfolk, including the climb over the Wellington Range, I decided to continue on. However, I first took a 30 minute break and watched the end of a local cricket match before getting water from the toilet block and setting off.
I followed another pleasant rural back road north out of Judbury, following Judds Creek up into the Wellington Range. I was tired, and it was a plod, but I was determined to walk until at least 5:30pm, and ultimately did not find somewhere (a tiny patch of mossy ground beside the very stony forest road) to erect my tent until soon after 6pm. Of course, it immediately began to rain, so I waited another 20 minutes before putting up the tent. Almost immediately it was erected it began raining again and I quickly chucked everything in the tent, including myself. I was exhausted and it would have been very easy to just lie down and go to sleep, but I knew I should eat, and cooked just outside of the tent from within. While eating dinner, I managed to find a radio station broadcasting the last half of the World Cup Rugby quarter-final between England and Australia. I might as well not have bothered.
Later, whilst writing my blog, I lost half of it and had to start again. Fortunately, there is no-one camped within earshot. I'm a little concerned about how my feet will be tomorrow. Hopefully a night's sleep will make a difference.
No comments:
Post a Comment