A bushwalker’s lament – organising a walk in Tasmania

Ah, the frustrations of being a solo hiker and trying to organise a bushwalk in Tasmania.

As much as I love Tassie, it still drives me nuts how difficult and expensive it is if you want to do some solo hiking in some of the less well known (ie not over run by tourists) wilderness areas.

Getting to the start of trails in areas like the South-West is impossible without a car. There’s no public transport or regular bushwalker service during the summer “on” season. Your only options are hiring a car or getting a lift from somewhere.

Hiring a car seems like a waste though as the car will be left parked for however long you’re going to be walking for. There are some bushwalker tour companies but they only service the popular walks – like the Overland Track.

I had thought I could catch a bus from Hobart south to a small town called Geeveston and then try one of the taxi services in the area. This is what I did when I did my Precipitous Bluff walk – bus to Geeveston, lift to the start of the track, lift from my finish at Cockle Creek back to Geeveston, bus back to Hobart.

But when I called to enquire I learned the taxi service (sole driver) I used had retired and there was just one other left based in another nearby town – Huonville.

After a bit of Googling, the Parks Tasmania website listed a bloke who provided transport for walkers but when I called him he said he’d also stopped doing it. But he referred me to Par Avion, a tour company that flies tourists and walkers to Melaleuca, an airstrip and popular starting/finishing point for walks in the South-West.

Par Avion gave me the names and numbers of two people who offer transport to walkers (Dallas – 0429 168 905 and Jemma – 0447 250 979). I called them in November and their diaries were already starting to fill up with bushwalker trips. So I guess I’m not the only one in this situation.

Unfortunately, because I’m hiking solo, I have to cover the whole cost of the lift – which is more than the cost of my flights to Tassie. Thankfully, I’m in the fortunate position to be able to afford this. But wow, it’s a hefty hit.

Anyway, hopefully the weather gods will be kind to me and the walk will be worth it.

 

 

Some of my favourite multi-day walks

A few weeks ago Australia’s Outdoor magazine published a list of the top ten multday walks in the country.
I was quite chuffed to discover I’ve done six-ish of them – Queensland’s Thorsborne Trail on Hinchinbrook Island and Fraser Island Great Walk and Tasmania’s Overland Track (a couple of times), Eastern Arthur Range (I’ve done some of the Eastern Arthurs walk – into and up Federation Peak and out), Western Arthur Range Traverse, and South Coast Track.

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The list made me think there’s plenty more walking I’ve got to do and also about what would be on my list of top overnight walks.
So while the ones I’ve mentioned above are certainly in my list of top walks, here’s a few others that have made an impression on me and I’d recommend.

1. Mount Remarkable, South Australia – Walking through the eastern side of this park presented some beautiful landscapes that, for me, are the picture of what I like to imagine the Australian bush is. It’s a romantic picture but one I like to daydream about. Open spaces dotted with big old gnarly trees and massive blue skies overhead. If you time it right and go around when the area gets rain, the ground is covered by a blanket of green grass and the streams at the bottom of steep gullies are running.

Mt Remarkable National Park

2. South-west circuit, Tasmania – This was my most recent big walk and it was the subject of some of my first blog posts. It had everything – amazing coastal views, challenging terrain, beaches, mountain ranges, strenuous walking and the feeling of utter and total independence and being away from everything.

On the South West Circuit

3. Mount Bartle-Frere, Queensland – This was the first overnight walk I ever did on my own. I had no idea what I was doing but it started a lifelong passion for the outdoors. I was living in Atherton, my home town on the Tablelands in Far North Queensland at the time, and walked from the western side of the mountain. The mountain is covered in dense rainforest. So dense that when I went off track for a bathroom break, I had a moment of panic when I went to return to my pack I’d left on the track and couldn’t find it. After some deep calming breaths and a careful retracing of my steps I found the track again. I don’t think I’ve felt a sense of relief like that since. The climb is a physical challenge but apparently the view from the top is worth it. The weekend I was at the top it was covered in cloud and I didn’t see a thing. Here’s a link to a map of the walk.

4. Walls of Jerusalem, Tasmania – One of my favourite places in Tasmania. Passing through Herods Gate into the walls is like walking into another world. You’re surrounded by high imposing peaks – King Davids Peak, The Temple and Solomons Throne are just some. Then walk down into the penicil pine forest of Dixons Kingdom and its old trappers’ hut and resident wallabies. Wonderful.

The Temple

5. Blue Gum Forest, New South Wales – Another early bushwalking experience that showed me the beauty of the Australian bush. A beautiful stand of tall blue gums in the Grose Valley in the Blue Mountains. It was saved from the axe by a group of bushwalkers who bought it in the 1930s to save for future generations. Inspiring bush and an inspiring story.

An introduction …

I can still remember the moment when bushwalking and the outdoors became a big part of my life. A friend had given me a subscription to Australian Geographic magazine for my birthday. The first edition I received had a feature by the magazine’s founder, Dick Smith, about walking the Overland Track in Tasmania, Australia’s southern island state. The photographs of the track’s scenery – from the start at Cradle Mountain to its end at Lake St Clair – were stunning . The article talked of rugged mountains, clear rushing streams and waterfalls and mossy forests. I was so inspired that I wanted to see these sights for myself.  I had never undertaken a multi-day trek before by myself, so joined a guided tour. The trip was spectacular. I did the walk in summer – December – and yet there was still snow on the ground. It was the first time I had seen snow. It was so utterly foreign to me (not much snow in tropical North Queensland) that I kept reaching down to touch it, scooping up handfuls to eat (making sure it wasn’t yellow of course!) The weather was sunny and warm and I walked the track in tshirt and shorts. Brilliant.

Cradle Mountain with Dove Lake in the foreground

The wilderness, bushwalking and camping has had a profound hold on me ever since. I was so impressed by the Overland Track and Tasmania’s wilderness that I got a job in the state so I could keep bushwalking and explore more.

I later moved to Sydney for work but the draw of the bush continued, leading me to join the Sydney Bushwalking Club and walking the national parks on the city’s fringes. It was while in Sydney that I also discovered mountain biking and rock climbing, with the Blue Mountains, just over an hour from the city by train, providing plenty of opportunities for play.

My love of camping and the outdoors has come as a surprise to my family. As a child I hated the outdoors. I hated getting dirty. I got homesick on school camps and cried. Now I love throwing on a heavy backpack, lacing up my boots and setting out on a track, leaving behind showers and the comforts of home. Now I sometimes feel like crying when it’s time to go back to the city.

So why do I love the outdoors so much? Some of the easy reasons are fresh air, stunning scenery and exercise. But the harder to explain ones go to the sense of peace I get when I can leave behind my worries for a few hours or days while I’m immersed in nature’s bigger picture. There’s also that sense of adventure you get, that anything could happen, that can sometimes feel missing from today’s city lifestyle.

This blog is a bit of a vanity project. But it’s also an outlet for me to share my trips and advice and, perhaps, inspire others contemplating exploring the outdoors.