Friday, October 25, 2019

Tasmanian Trail Hike - Day 008 - Ouse to Victoria Valley

Day: 08
Date: Friday, 25 October 2019
Start:  Ouse
Finish:  Victoria Valley
Daily Kilometres:  24.2
Total TT Kilometres:  205.0
Weather:  A bit of everything with a strong dose of wind
Accommodation:  Tent
Nutrition:
  Breakfast:  Bacon, eggs & tomato, and a milkshake
  Lunch:  Salad sandwich
  Dinner:  Soup and rehydrated meal
Aches:  All good, apart from tired/sore feet towards the end of the day. 
Highlight:  The afternoon walk on a forest trail, when the worst of the wind had passed, through the Lanes Tier Conservation Area, with old growth eucalypt forest and a bracken understorey, was very pleasant.
Lowlight:  The worst of the windstorm, which hit while I was crossing open grazing land on a gravel backroad, was very unpleasant, with wind-whipped dust making it very hard for a contact lens wearer.
Pictures: Click here
Map and Position: Click here for Google Map
Journal:
I slept in until 7am, then packed up and walked into town at 8am and bought myself a cooked breakfast at the roadhouse.  By the time I finished that, and bought some drink and snacks at the store, it was nearly time for the Post Office to open.  It duly did and I received my mailed food pack to see me through to my next resupply in a few days. I was on the road out of town by 9:20am in pleasantly warm conditions but with ominous clouds building in the northwest.

The day's hiking was really divided into two parts, the first half was to be through hilly open grazing land as I climbed up to Lanes Tier, and the second half was to be through forest including the Lanes Tier Conservation Area.  It also turned out to be a day of two halves weather-wise with the morning quickly deteriorating into gale-force winds, with occasional wind-driven rain and dust, making it quite unpleasant in the open. Despite that, there was virtually no traffic and only one farmhouse in about 10km, so I had the place to myself.

About the same time that I left the farm for the forest, the wind seemed to drop a little, but maybe I was just more protected, and there were periods of sunshine.  It warmed up enough to resume hiking in a T-shirt and there was no more rain, though the wind continued to howl in the treetops. Partway through the forest, I came on some signage warning that the road I was on was closed for logging, but I heard no machinery and ultimately saw no-one as I pressed on through.

At a break I checked messages on my phone and found one from a member of the Tasmanian Trail organisation warning me that the trail near Miena, where I will be in a couple of days, has been closed because of a bushfire.  I was aware of the fire through radio bulletins and knew that although it was a couple of days old, it had flared up in the strong winds. Given there is rain in the forecast, I suspect the trail will be open by the time I get there, but there is a roadwalk alternative if not.

After the joys of the Lanes Tier CA, the trail rejoined a more major (though still minor) gravel road and I walked through the hamlet of Victoria Valley, which seemed to comprise just one house, and found the TT campsite a little further on, arriving just before 4pm.  There's a toilet, water tank and picnic table, but no shelter and it's on the crest of a ridge meaning it is exposed to the strong and cold winds as I write this. I think I will be in the tent early tonight.

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