Overland Track - Day 0

Cute isn't he! Actually that's him in 1991.  Luckily for us he looks like this now..still cute, but much much bigger and stronger..

Even after removing the excess packaging and vacuum sealing I still ended up with an overwhelmingly large mountain of food spread across the floor.  Uh Oh!  I took a photo but unfortunately I can't find it.  dang.

Thankfully Bjørn had the foresight to bring a backpack with 110litre capacity. In comparison, my pack, which looks like a perfectly normal sized hiking pack, has a 65 litre capacity and I'd say Jon's is about 75 litres.   So like a tardis, he was able to drop fully laden bag after fully laden bag into the main section of his pack without so much as flinching.  Like many Norwegian men, he'd done a years military service, where hauling 60kg packs through marshy terrain was what they did for fun after they'd finished parachuting and playing with the armoured tanks for the day (probably).

I love these cabins - they only cost about $100 per night and they are the only place you can stay actually within the park - all the other much more expensive options are 6k up the road outside the park boundaries. I also stayed here with mum and my granny back in about 1982 so I have fond memories of sitting at the table while rain pelted down outside and Denny and I making fun of Granny's knitted bum-warmer that she used to wear (sorry Granny).  The cabins have been upgraded a little since them - they have electricity now, but they are still very basic and cosy.   Not surprisingly they are very popular amongst regular tourists and overland trackers alike. You have to book early.

Anyway we arrived early enough to have time to temporarily disgorge our packs at the cabins and go for a nice walk on the Boardwalk trail before dinner.

.the view from the top bunk to the floor, moments after we arrived.. 

I love the boardwalk - it's about 5.5k long and winds it's way up the valley from the information centre to the official start of the Overland Track at Romy Creek.  Our cabins were just a 1/2 K away so it was a prefect way to spend the afternoon and spot wombats (12) before returning to the cabin for the last fresh food for a while.  

Clare and Mary on the left, Bjørn and I in front of Cradle in the distance on the right  

There were so many wombats we practically tripped over them..  

 Out of interest, for dinner that  we had Latina Fresh pasta, the remains of Zali's birthday cake, and some tim-tams which had failed to make the packing cut the previous day.  Then it was off to bed for a nervous nights sleep.  As I tossed and turned, thoughts kept spinning around in my head.. Would we make it? Would Jon's back be ok? Did we have enough Kvikk Lunsj?…