What an amazing evening and morning, alone on the sand dunes. First thing in the morning I woke to walk the shore. Stunning continues to be the theme.
Much to my surprise, a family appeared around the edge of the beach. They had camped a mere quarter of a mile away from my site. The official campsite was completely unmarked. As it turns out, I was not entirely alone but was only hundreds of meters away from a very friends crew of campers.
Feeling energized by meeting other humans, I walked back to my tent to pack things up and hit the trail. As I approached the tent a very thick black snake slithered from the entrance area. It looked like a “rat snake” to me and made its way along and back into the undergrowth. (Later I would find out that this was a Tiger Snake, one of the most aggressive and deadly in Tasmania. One bite and there would have been no hope of recovery in such an isolated area.)
The return hike proved to be just as challenging as the previous days journey. Mud at times was well up my shinbone. I’m sorry to report that the hiking gators that Marc gave me on my sixteenth birthday perished along the way. The old zippers couldn’t take the tugging pressure of the mud.
The Southern Hemisphere certainly knows how to put on an atmospheric show. I’ve seen stratus clouds all over the world, but never have I witnessed them being formed. Right before my eyes was a locomotive of corrugated vapor being pulled from a cirrus cloud by an Antarctic stream of air. These clouds were literally flying by as they were ripped from their previous mass. Call me a dork but this was incredible!
It was a pleasure to catch up with the Tasmanian family, with their 20-ish son and his girlfriend. It turns out that this heavy-duty journey was the second indoctrination into the world of trekking for this hopeful new member of the family. She hid her tears well and really was a great sport about the whole adventure. Talk about trial by fire!
Finishing the trek together, I received my first Aussie accolade of “Good on ya, Paul”. Then when exchanging our good-byes I actually received a “Very good on ya” complete with frame rattling handshake.
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