Freycinet Winter Hike - Day 2

Wednesday, 26 July 2017

As the only one who had really examined the map before the hike, I was probably the only person who harboured grave concerns about day 2. In fact my original itinerary for this trip was to just walk the 4 flat kilometre stretch from Cooks Beach to the Hazards Beach camping site on the second day.   However when I had described this plan to Clare she pointed out that it would have been a bit lame to just do that. So the plan was changed to going over Mt Freycinet and Mt Graham to the Wineglass Bay campsite instead.  It’s not that the distance was that far - although it was 14 kilometres, or that steep - although it would involve going from sea level to 620 metres, it was that our packs would be heavy. Really really heavy.   The reason for this is that there isn’t a water tank at Wineglass Bay and we would have to carry our water for the next two days. I’m not sure of the reasoning for the lack of a tank - I suspect the Parks department don’t want to encourage too many people to camp there - which, given the rather messy condition of the site when we got there, is probably a good thing.  

Anyway, as we set off at 9:45,  my pack was second in weight only to the last time I camped at Wineglass Bay when it was just Jett and I and we stayed for two nights.  For that trip I had all our gear and food for two days, plus 6 litres of water.  This time I had a tent, just (!) 4 litres of water, and probably a third of the food for four of us for the remaining 1 and a half days. My pack was heavy, but not has heavy as Jon’s - he was carrying 10 litres of water, a tent, and the rest of the food - 28kilos all up.  Zali and Jett both had their normal packs with all their own clothes and camping equipment except for the tent, plus about 1.5 litres of water each.

The profile of the day's walk 

Whilst it was still windy, the weather was pretty good as we headed down Cooks Beach. 

 Our first challenge was to get up to Freycinet Saddle. After a few rest stops we made it by 12:30pm.   

There we happily ditched our packs and  climbed the rest of the way up Mt Freycinet. I’d never been up there before so it was good to finally make it! It was a shame that we didn't get any group photos from the top but we all seemed to arrive at different times. It took just over half an hour to get to the summit.

After lunch back at the saddle we then faced the second major challenge of the day - we had to get over Mt Graham with full packs and already tired legs. It was a hard climb, every step with those heavy packs was a strain! I can’t imagine how Jon did it but he managed to keep a steady pace and a smile the whole day. The hardest bit probably only took us about 30 minutes but it was a huge relief to make it. I must mention that both Annabelle and Chloe did really well - their packs were at least as heavy as Zali and Jett’s, and aside from a few problems with blisters they didn’t struggle at all - they were excellent hikers!  I’m glad Zali and Jett didn’t have much trouble either as I wouldn’t have had the spare energy to convince them to keep going!

Once over Mt Graham we had the downhill stretch to Wineglass Bay to go - that's it in the distance below.

Although it was only about 5-6kms from Mt Graham, the trail is pretty rough so none of it was particularly easy hiking.  Nevertheless with a few stops and a steady pace we made it down to the beach just as the sun was setting! It had been a long day!  

It got dark so quickly after we arrived that I didn't get any good campsite photos but we had a nice little spot nestled in the trees. Dinner was a relatively uninspiring and messy re-hydrated laksa for us, and a more enticing looking pasta for Jo's subgroup.   After a long day it was lovely to snuggle into my sleeping bag on my new super-comfy thermarest and think about how the next day was going to be easy compared to what we'd done!