My Trip to Tasmania


I went to Tasmania to spend 7 days hiking through Cradle Mt. - Lake St Clair
National Park. The terrain is so special that it is one of the World
Heritage areas. My pack was about 35 pounds. We camped in tents at each stop
along the trail, except for one where we stayed in a cabin. The odds of each
day raining in March are 2/3 even though it is one of the driest months.
Amazingly, over the 7 days that I hiked, it only rained one day, which was a
fantastic surprise.




The Common Wombat was the first animal I saw...moments after arriving to the
National Park. Having no clue what it was I avoided the desire to touch it,
but it seemed really indifferent to me being so close. I soon learned that the
animals are used to being around so many people.





The next animal I saw was a Tasmanian Pademelon, which is a kind of wallaby.





This was the very beginning of the 90km (I think) trip. It was really nice
when the path was wooden like this, but it usually wasn't. They only build them
when it is an extremely wet area. If you look into the background, you see
lots of low-flying white clouds, which are seen everyday in this area.





This was near the end of day one. The mountain in the background is
called Barn Bluff.





On the second day, we stopped at a small waterfall. In the background is one
of our guides, Clare.










Here was our camping setup for the second day.





The third day was our one day of rain (no picture). The fourth day was a
"rest day" where we hiked without the heavy packs--we climbed up top of Mt
Oakleigh. This is the magnificent view from the top.





Andrew was our other guide and was an amazing cook, seen here making a
Malaysian stir-fry.





A Bennett's Wallaby, just a baby one.





On the fifth day, we hiked up to the top of Mt Ossa, the highest point on the
island. We left our packs at the base of it (~500 meters below the top) and
then prepared for the trip up which could be described as nothing other than
a rock scramble.





Reaching the base of the top of Mt Ossa felt really good, though the views
over the edge challenged my fear of heights a bit.





Here's our group photo at the end of the trail, when they picked us up and
took us back to civilization.





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