Day: 10
Date: Sunday, 27 October 2019
Start: Bronte Park
Finish: Miena
Daily Kilometres: 31.4 (35.0 TT, less 3.6 because of bushfire detour)
Total TT Kilometres: 272.3
Weather: Cold all day with a chilly wind and mostly overcast with a few showers of wintry mix in the afternoon.
Accommodation: Lodge
Nutrition:
Breakfast: Apple crumble
Lunch: Trail mix and meat pie
Dinner: Beef rissoles and vegetables
Aches: I swapped to wearing my camp shoes (a very old pair of Nike Pegasus) for today to see if that made any difference to my feet. I think they were marginally better at the end of the day, though I did score a blister on my left heel. I'm thinking now that the Brooks Cascadia I have been wearing are aggravating my feet for some reason. It's hard to say how/why. I generally have a high opinion of Brooks, having been sponsored by them during my marathon career and having worn them for most of my Appalachian Trail thru-hike in 1986.
Highlight: None really
Lowlight: Things got pretty bleak while crossing the vast plain surrounding Little Pine Lagoon, with a cold wind coming off the lake and a wind-driven wintry mix adding to my discomfort.
Map and Position: Click here for Google Map
Journal:
I woke at 6am, ate what was left of last night's apple crumble for breakfast, and after watching the news headlines left my very comfortable cabin for the cold outside (3°C without the windchill) and the 31km to tonight's stop at Miena. After reading about closures on the Tasmanian Trail website, I decided to keep it simple and just follow the road to Miena rather than risking unexpected detours while trying to follow the published route. Even the published route was mostly along the road anyway.
Although cold, the early walking was peaceful and enjoyable through alpine forest on a formed-earth road with almost no traffic. Most of the time, the road seemed to be crossing a forested high plateau and was relatively flat, though there were no views. I just coasted along, listening to some music on the radio and trying to judge whether my feet were better because of the change in shoes (see above).
As the day wore on, there was more traffic, but still long periods of nothing. Several people stopped to ask if I wanted a lift, but I politely declined. Further north, there was clear evidence of a severe and recent fire, with no signs of green shoots, gnarled and blackened trees, and bare red earth and rocks. It had a kind of stark beauty, despite the devastation.
After about 20km, the road reached Little Pine Lagoon and crossed a vast scrubby plain. The weather seemed to worsen (see above), though it may have just been because I was more exposed, and the long straight stretches of road seemed never-ending in the harsh conditions.
Finally, I reached the Miena General Store about 2:45pm and stopped in to warm up with a hot meat pie, as well as buying a few snacks to take with me to the lodge where I will be staying, which was another 3km along the road. Somewhat refreshed, I set out for the walk to the lodge which followed the shore of Swan Bay, part of the Great Lake. There were quite a few weekend shacks and clearly fishing is the big thing around here.
I reached the lodge just before 4pm, and they checked me in for two nights despite there still being some demand for rooms from the bushfire fighters tackling the blaze nearby (see yesterday's blog post). They also handed over my self-mailed food parcel (they are the Post Office as well), so I'm set for the next few days after I leave here. I'm looking forward to a day off tomorrow.
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