Read, Write, Ramble

  Surveyors Hut   to Munro Hut – 11 km ‘It’s the taste of the track’   We luxuriated in our sleeping bags well after sunrise, reluctant to leave their warmth, after it had taken us so long to get to sleep. Our towels atop our mattresses had been a game changer however, adding a barrier to the cold and allowing us to finally get some much-needed rest. Eventually at about 7am, we all emerged from our cocoons and wandered down to the dining hub for breakfast. We enjoyed delicious muesli with the luxury of warm milk, and filtered coffee. Meanwhile the resident wallabies kept us entertained with their boxing antics just off the boardwalk. While preparing to move on, we were deterred from washing our coffee mugs by Phi, who insisted that they held the ‘taste of the track’, which would accumulate over the course of the hike, and therefore should not be washed, as in so doing we would lose the flavours of our adventure! Packs re-packed, we set off just after 9 on the tr...

  Denmans Cove to Surveyors Hut – 4 km 'A hike without hardship is just a walk in the park'   The day began at 4:32am to the sounds of the garbage truck on Argyle st. Our accommodation in Hobart, had been chosen for its centrality and convenience, not for its peacefulness. My two beautiful daughters and I had arrived in Hobart the previous day, found our inner-city apartment, wrangled our packs into some semblance of order (apparently, I didn’t need 46 Vitamin C tablets for the 4-day hike ahead!), shopped for the food we would need, dined in a bustling historic hotel and settled in for a good night’s sleep in preparation for the days of hiking ahead. Argyle street, however, was not particularly serene. As we were trying to get to sleep there was the sound of a lone male voice singing loudly and discordantly on the street below; seems the hospital opposite our digs was going to be the least of our problems when it came to noise. And now, the city was noisily coming to lif...

‘Leave the road, take the trails,’ is a quote attributed to Pythagoras. There I was thinking he dealt only in triangles, but no, he was apparently a philosopher, mystic, and scientist as well as a mathematician. I don’t know the background to this quote, but this is one Pythagoreanism I am happy to subscribe to. Leaving the road and taking the trails is certainly my preferred option, and it seems we will be putting this philosophy into practice a great deal more in the not-too-distant future. As I ponder my open pack and the bed strewn with all the piles of hiking paraphernalia I am readying for my forthcoming hike on Tasmania’s Three Capes Track, I also ponder when my love of hiking first began. I have never done it in any formal way, well, not until recently, when I joined a local hiking group. Until then, I had always taken an ad hoc approach whenever an opportunity arose. Over the years I have explored significant trails such as summiting Ben Nevis with family whilst visiting Sop...