Packing Regrets

Wednesday, 5 October 2016

 Tonight Jon and I are packing for an adventure. Not the same adventure though.. Jon and Jett are heading over to Victoria for the Great Ocean Walk 100km race (Jett and brother Paul are supporting Jon).  While Zali and I are going to do the Three Capes hike from Port Arthur.  I think we are the last Tasmanians to do this walk, and certainly amongst the first to pay the full price - unfortunately we couldn’t do it in the winter 1/2 price window as I was flat out with work, and Zali had school.

But we’re doing it now and I’m really looking forward to it. We don’t have to take a tent or sleeping mats or cooking pans which is great and should have meant that my pack was nice and light, but as I’m not going to make Zali and her buddy carry more than 1kg of food each, it means I’m carrying the rest of the food for 3 people for 3 nights. dang!  It should be nice and light by the last day at least!

As I started thinking about the preparations for this trip, I decided to dig out the notes I took as I interviewed everyone on the jetty at Echo Point, on the last night of our Overland Track walk.    

 
I asked everyone questions like ‘what item do you wish you had brought’, ‘what item would you upgrade for next time’..

My response to the What Item Would You Upgrade question was ‘my backpack’ - which is great because that’s exactly what I’ve done - I’ve got a nice new Berghaus pack which I think will fit me a lot better than my newish one which I gave away.  I also said in response to the ‘What item do you wish you had brought?’ question, was ‘Better Socks’ - so again I’m reassured as I’ve since bought some nice Macpac hiking socks.

Here are some other selected responses from that lovely evening reflecting upon what was the most perfect 7 day hike ever..

Best View:  
CLARE, BJØRN, CATHY, ZALI, : Mt Ossa  
JETT: The Cirque at Windy Ridge  JON: Day 1 descent to Waterfall Valley Hut

Most Useful Item :
CATHY: Ice-cream container (that I used to rehydrate our vegetables, soak porridge and  then pack food in).  
ZALI: pocket knife
BJØRN: giant bucket (I suspect that’s Bjorn’s way of saying ice-cream container as I really don’t remember anyone carrying a giant bucket!)

Useful Item I wish I had brought:
BJØRN: bathers
CLARE, JON: spare camera battery
CATHY: better socks
JETT: Pillow
ZALI: bucket hat

Food Item I wish I had brought:
BJØRN: Salty Pork (shudder)
CLARE: Honey / Wine
ZALI: More Feta Cheese
JETT: powdered gatorade.

Biggest Physical Issue:
BJØRN: Small Bladder (I suspect I wrote this answer)
CLARE: small Brain (I might have written this one too)
CATHY: sore hips (from illfitting backpack)

Best Hiking Snack
BJØRN, CATHY, CLARE: Salted Kvikklunsj
JON: Trailmix
JETT, ZALI: kvikklunsj (regular)

What food and drink do you wish you could have airlifted in right now:
BJØRN: Norwegian Beer, Lambshanks, chocolate pudding
CLARE: American Craft Beer, Cherries
CATHY: iced coffee (I have simple tastes)
JON: Tomato juice, fish & chips
JETT: Caramel koala, milkshake, salmon, pancakes (Jett was very hungry at this point!)
ZALI: coke, sushi with feta, any sort of dessert

So that was interesting - unfortunately we don't have any Kvikklunsj for this trip but I think we'll get by wiht the kilos of Cadbury chocolate I'll be carrying (unless I scoff it all on the boat)