Tassie is a great island with lots of superb walking. I started with a 2-day trip in the Freycinet National Park. I walked into Cook's Beach, camping there amongst very tame wallabies and annoying possums. I'd carefully put all food in my (very small) tent overnight but that did not stop the possum taking the loo roll out of the vestibule. I heard the rustling and managed to retrieve it.
The return route took me over Mt Graham (a mere 569m but great viewpoint) to the famous Wineglass Bay. The weather was perfect blue skies.
The following day I paid a short visit to the Bay of Fires, further up the east coast, with more beautiful white beaches. Not quite swimming temperatures yet, especially with a cool wind.
I returned to Launceston, Tassie's second biggest city and got things sorted out for the Overland Track. This is a walk of around six days and is rated as one of the top walks in the world, which it proved to be.
The actual walk is around 80km, but there are plenty of side trips which is why it normally takes six days. There are huts along the way though you are advised to take a tent in case these are full or you are caught out by the weather. Most of the huts are quite small, sleeping about 12-16 and fairly basic though comfortable; no sleeping mats, just sleeping platforms/bunks. From 1st November you have to book (and pay $160 - £90) to do the walk so leaving on 28 October as I did made it quite a popular start date.
The weather remained good for the start of the walk but cloud was beginning to come in so not quite so good for photos, though most of the time it was execllent walking weather. Just one day when there was light rain for a few hours, until the final night (when I was camping) when it poured most of the night.
With the combination of cloud to restrict views at times and quite a lot of soft snow on boulder fields on higher peaks I did not end up actually getting to the summit of either Cradle Mountain or Mt Ossa. However I did get some extra time to divert to Pine Valley and visit an area of lakes known as The Labyrinth.
Overall a great week. I am now in Hobart seeing some local sights, and even came across an evening orienteering event by pure chance. I think it's the first time I've been round a course in jeans!
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