The Overland Track Part II

Day 3: Windemear Hut to New Pelion Hut.

Everyone's shoes outside Windemear Hut

A 5:30am start. Mark said I made a lot of noise while packing up. There were about 7 other people sleeping in the hut and it was like opening a chip packet in a cinema. I could not be quiet and the more I tried the worse it got.

Breakfast: cereal, skim milk powder and water. It was not to bad.
Mark asked was I ready to go. NO! I had not had a coffee! We boiled water and had a coffee bag and it did the job.

We put our lives back on our backs and walked...and walked...and walked. It became apparent that we're not going to meet our target of the day as we were too slow. So we walked faster. I can honestly say I did not enjoy the morning as all I did was count. 1, 2, 3, 4 fast as we marched. It was exhausting. My right shoulder started to hurt but we marched on.

By lunch we reached New Pelion Hut. The reason for the rush was that we wanted to drop our packs at the hut and just take a small day back pack and climb the highest mountain in Tassi. Mt Ossa. The problem was it was a 14km return trip including the scramble on hands and knees to the top of Ossa. We did it despite the risk of it getting dark and us not being back at the hut. I was worried we were being stupid but we really wanted to conquer this peak.

Mark made it to the top and I made it all but 1km. The views were awesome and it felt like you could see the whole world and that no one lived there but us. It was frightening and amazing all at once.

Dinner was Deb (potato), peas and can soup.

The most interesting thing is that hiking is the great equalizer. It does not matter if you are male or female, rich or poor, pretty or not everyone is just as tired and as hungry as you.

Topics of conversation:
# What are you eating?
# What hut did you come from?
# Did you or will you climb Mt Ossa?

View from Mt Ossa. Cradle Mt on the right

# How heavy is your bag?
# Where are you going tomorrow?

It is very here and now and very primal as it is really about survival.

The other funny thing is money means nothing. You cannot buy a chocolate bar for all the money in your wallet as the money was worth nothing out there. The chocolate is worth so much more. It is your hope, your thing to look forward to, your boost when you cannot walk any more, the thing to help you forget your blisters for 1 minute and the reward at the end of a day. It is your survival and you cant buy that with money.

Having said that one guy had 24 mars bars with him! Next time that will be me.

still looking like a smurf

The only past time was looking at the map. Studying the terrain, the km, the descriptions, working our how long it will take and looking at it again and again. We did not need a book for entertainment, a book would not have helped us survive. The map is your best buddy.

Bear Grylls?

A heavy back pack.

Day 2 was heck-tick and my blisters had started to form.