In February, 2020, I had one of the best experiences in my life…6 days with my daughter Frances, walking the Tasmanian Overland Track. I equate it with a fortnight cycling in Vietnam in November 2015, with my other daughter Marnie.
Pictures
- a selection of Frances and Greg’s photos (45 photos)
- all of my photos (203, reduced from over 400 — I wonder how many Jack took?)
- a 3D animated view of our walk — well worth checking out, but it does use a lot of your computer’s resources:
- Give the programme time to load…it can be a little slow, and it can take a couple of tries, but it is impressive when it gets going.
- Use the stats to check when at an overnight stop;
- Use the bar at the bottom to fast forward.
- Drag the mouse to see different perspectives of the walk.
- Drag with the right mouse button to zoom.
- the Strava 2D map of our walk (if you have a login to Strava, you’ll see more detail, including statistics).
- Be sure to check out David’s photos. There are many wonderful photos, including those of Melissa and Dad!
- Hilton’s photos include amazing fauna and people shots.
- Jack’s photos!!! The photos speak for themselves. Great photos of people, especially Alan who has so much character in his face.
- Jack’s photos of people
Memorable moments
- great weather
- excellent guides (thanks Ned and Gemma!)
- great group of people to travel with:
- Ned (guide extraordinaire who has done 70+ treks, etc, and in only 21 years),
- Gemma (guide extraordinaire who has also done so much, including Mountain Climbing in the same area where world-renowned climber Tommy Caldwell was captured by the Taliban),
- David (father of Melissa and ex-director of Rio Tinto),
- David (witty and generous),
- Hilton (lover of 60s-80s music),
- Melissa (successful medical copywriter),
- Margaret (from Cressy near Launceston, and sister-in-law to…),
- Gordon (also from Cressy. Farmer of all things that make money.)
- Darren (humorist and accountant and lover of canned chicken, who works for a forestry company and fights fires, and is forced to take 66 days leave this year),
- Jack (photographer extraordinaire with a clever sense of humour),
- Shannon (able to endure the pain of her blisters for several consecutive days, and vendor of excellent health products, and parent of a beautiful daughter I believe — I know how she feels!?),
- Alan (80-year old ‘sprinter’ — that is, it was he who was waiting for us at our stops),
- Frances (full-time traveller who is currently in between travels, as a journalist with The Examiner, and who turned 27 on our last day), and
- Greg (that’s me).
- well-organised travel company
- 6 days with my daughter for her birthday
- surviving the walk
- Jack, and his meticulous attention to photographical detail, including lugging his extra lenses, a proper camera, and tripod the almost 90km. A magnificent effort.
- Shannon pushing through the last 3 days with painful blisters. And let’s not forget that Gemma had blisters from her mothers boots (them darn parents!). Great persistence.
- Ned and Darren’s “cans of chicken” challenge. I think Ned got to 17, moving up the leaderboard, but 4 short of being the king, while Darren managed 11 cans, which was his ‘meagre’ challenge. [As if carrying a heavily-laden backpack wasn’t enough!]
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- Getting back into politics with David’s philosophical forum.
- The serenity and peacefulness walking through the lush forests.
- The brisk swimming in the cold rivers and lakes. [Well, I believe it was. I wasn’t actually one of the brave souls to try it out.]
- Ascending Mt Ossa, the highest mountain in Tassie. [Again, I get this second-hand…I piked and returned from Mt Doris to the warmth of the overnight hut]
- The delicious food prepared by our superb chefs/guides. And the generous quantities of Tasmanian wine each night must get a mention here too.
- The thoughtfulness of David (the doctor) who arranged a tip from us. The service and friendliness of our guides went far beyond that expected.
- 6 days of being offline!!!! [I still hear the pings and audio from videos as we got back into range again.]
- How lucky we were to see the wildlife we saw: Pademelons, echidna, wombat (my first live wild one), tiger snakes, big and slow ‘march’ flies, skinks (who were not human-averse at all, unlike the ones found in Sydney who skedaddle as soon as they sense a human), fish (according to Darren at the suspension bridge), maybe a mozzie or two, yellow wattle birds (again, Darren was the eagle-eyed to spot these…we all heard their chundering noise.)
- The lovely thank-you cards, including group photo, presented to us by Ned and Gemma at closing drinks on the last day.
- The extra effort Gemma went to, to cook a surprise birthday cake for Frances for her 27th birthday, on the last day of our walking expedition. It was wonderful to see Frances as she arose in the morning to a chorus of ‘Happy Birthday’, and candled chocolate cake.
- Also, Gemma’s exceptional generosity extended to her carrying the cake in her backpack all the way to Lake St Clair so we could celebrate Frances’ birthday at the end of our walk (with a beer, scotch, gin, etc!?).
- the desserts — especially the Crème Brûlée.
Thanks all for contributing to a truly memorable and enjoyable 6 days!