Overnight Hike

Tuesday, 8 October 2013

It's funny what the kids get really excited about. Despite the fact that we normally have to drag them kicking and screaming to anything that sounds remotely like a 'walk', they've been eagerly anticipating our first ever overnight bushwalk for weeks.  I'd told them they'd be carrying their own sleeping bag, sleeping mat and clothes but that didn't put them off at all - in fact they loved the idea. 

Our plan was to walk to the campsite at the far end of Wineglass Bay - so about 5k.  Perfect distance for the kids and although we had to carry both tents and water, a pretty easy re-introduction to overnight hiking for us.

As part of our packing extravaganza we had packed our walking packs completely before we left Hobart, so when we arrived at the car park it we just had to grab out bags, take some 'before photos' and we were away...

Now the photo on the right is of Jon with his pack. That's my pack leaning against his knee.  I know what you're thinking but I can explain.. One of the things we failed to find despite us both searching the house from top to bottom the night before was my 20 year old rucksack.  This was extremely unfortunate for Jonno as the only alternative for me was his daypack.  Now I bet you are thinking that I was glad about the whole situation but not really - I actually don't mind carrying a backpack - it's really very satisfying and I like to feel independent.  Instead I imagined that every single person we passed along the way probably thought I was unable or unwilling to carry my share. Oh well.  I did investigate the price of new packs online and the feasibility of a quick stop at Kathmandu on the way out of town but Jon persuaded me against a rushed purchase and after looking at the weather observations that would have actually meant 100k an hour gusts of wind over the bridge (instead of 80) and almost certainly no bus to shelter us. 

So we set off with the kids both trotting off ahead of us.. It's a pretty busy track and their big packs and bounciness earned them lots of admiring glances from struggling (and generally inappropriately dressed) tourists on the way up.  At one spot we stopped for a rest where there were some well dressed chinese tourists.  We dumped our packs next to their Chanel Handbags - I wish I'd got a photograph.  Onwards and upwards though...

The kids were still full of enthusiasm when we got to the newly re-jigged and improved lookout..

 It took us half an hour to get down to Wineglass Bay where we were rewarded with the sight of a pod of six dolphins swimming around. These dolphins actually spent the rest of the day and evening in the bay - we watched them as we sat with our hot chocolates later that night - what a treat.

It took about half an hour to walk along the beach to get to the camping area at the far end. This photo above shows a speck in the distance which is Jett, then Jon, then Zali.

The kids were pretty keen to set up their own tent once we reached the campsite - they'd already had a practise at home.  Behold both tents - my 20 year old Macpac Minaret - weight 2.6kg - replacement value $650, their brand new Denali brand Anaconda tent - weight 3.1 kg, replacement value $140:

Their tent was certainly WAY more spacious and airy than ours, and amazingly cheap - I had to get my old poles replaced for this trip and that cost $65 - nearly half the cost of their whole tent!  I did notice that the floor of theirs felt a little flimsy (although there's no way my tent floor is still waterproof), yet no tent is as fast to put up as a Macpac Minaret - I could have done it in the dark with one hand and still had time to make Zali and Jett a hot chocolate before they were finished.

We arrived at the campsite at about 4 so there was the perfect amount of time to get set up, explore a bit, have dinner then early bedtime. We were pretty exhausted from the late night packing and the aforewrittenabout harrowing journey.

The next morning the kids were up early and rearing to go.  It is so nice not having to pack up a giant family tent and we were all ready to go by without being in any sort of hurry by about 8.30.

The kids were keen to walk back to the car the long way (about 10k all up) so from the other end of the beach we turned left and went across the Isthmus via Hazards Beach.

 In our entire journey they didn't complain once about having to walk or carry a pack. It was amazing. I think they loved the adventure of it all and when we met up with the cousins back in Coles Bay I overheard Zali talking about it and showing Miley her pack and what she was carrying. They were pretty proud of themselves and I recon we'd have no trouble convincing them of doing something similar again - in fact they were proposing 2 night trips as we walked back.  I recon I might have to buy myself a new rucksack for that though.