Survived The Overland :)

Helloooo. Yesterday evening the three of us arrived at our backpackers in Hobart, loathing for a hot shower and a good meal after succesfully completing The Overland Track. Up untill the start of our 7day walk the weather in Tassie had been beautiful, with almost nothing but sunny days. Our luck changed the day before we wanted to start The Overland. We went in to the information centre of the Lake St. Clair - Cradle Mountain National Park to register and pay the entry fee for the walk, when the ranger warned us about a serious coldfront coming in to the region a day later bringing wind, rain, hail and snow with it. He asked us if we were adequately prepared to do the walk in those conditions and didn't mind being cold and miserable. We answered something like : "Yeah, sure, No worries, we come from Belgium, we're used to that kind of weather, it'll make us feel at home" - not really knowing what to expect...

And the first day was BAAAAAAD. Trying to climb up a steep irregular path with strong gusts of wind battering in to your side is not a very pleasant sensation when you are carrying a 20+kg backpack. The weather that first day was so bad we thought about turning back the next day if the weather didn't settle down a bit. We arrived at the first hut completely soaked. Luckely we bought some xtra gear the day before we left, like thermal underwear (real lifesavers in that kind of weather), gloves and a hat (yes yes... this IS still Australia I'm talking about), so that we were ok... just very wet... We spent the rest of the day drying our stuff in front of the gas stove in the hut... and in the afternoon it started snowing... and snowing... and snowing...

The next day there was a nice thick blanket of snow (15 centimeters where we were)... and it was still snowing. The weather had settled down a bit though, so we decided to continue the walk... And we didn't regret that for a second during the rest of our trip. It was sooooo beautiful, we didn't mind spending hours every evening drying our clothes and boots in front of gas/coal stove. The snow gave the already marvelous landscape (think Lord of The Rings, but then smaller, and with rainforest) a mysterious aura, and the whole experience of being in the wilderness in the middle of nowhere was great. The snow had a downfall though... I had to give up my ascent of Mount Ossa about 20 minutes from the summit because the snow and mist had made the climb to dangerous... Getting down from where I was already proved to be quite a challenge. Climbing up I hadn't noticed how steep and slippery some parts actually were. I made it in the end, and did get some magnificent views, so it was certainly worth it... I'll just have to come back another time to get to the summit :)

We got to see some wildlife on our hike too. We often came across wallabies and pademelons (mini kangeroes that look like enormous rats when viewed from behind). They didn't seem to mind people very much. Some even let you get right up to them. Possums were all over the place at night, as usual, raiding any backpacks or tents that were left unattended. I particulary enjoyed the black cacatou. A marvelous bird that we sometimes spotted flying in between the trees in the rainforest.

After all of that nature stuff it's a bit of a shock to come back to a city like Hobart. But here we are. And tomorrow we fly out of Tasmania (*sob sob* There is still some much to see and do in this place... I could easily stay here for a few xtra weeks... but Australia is big, and we've still got a lot of ground to cover) and back to Melbourne. From there we will take the greyhound bus to Adelaide, capital of South Australia (Great White territory, annualy people get eaten there... not going for a swim there i think :) ), where we will stay a few days in preparation of our trip through the centre and up to the Northern Territory, home to the infamous australian salt water crocs... Looking forward to it already :)