With My Head in the Clouds
Trip Start
May 01, 2008
1
23
Trip End
Ongoing
Cradle Mountain-Lake St. Clair National Park, Tasmania, Australia
Monday, February 23, 2009
I got up and on the road early
yesterday.
I stopped by Queenstown for some fuel.
The place is not much like it's New Zealand namesake. The bare and
benched mountains hint at the town's unapologetic past.
Getting closer to Cradle Mountain the
driving got better. Sun-bleached corpses of formerly stubbornly
proud trees stood guard over a tired landscape. Red, purple, yellow
and red soils. Dry scrub. I smell cheese.
I was welcomed to the camp ground by a
pair of wallabies. Slamming on the brakes and scurrying for my
camera didn't seem to bother them. “Stupid bloody tourist.
Probably another goddamn Canadian”.
My plan was to get up early and do a
long hike. The area has produced some amazing photos and I wanted
in.
The morning didn't look promising;
overcast with promise of rain from the weather service. I went up
anyway.
I was on my way up to Cradle Mountain
peak at 1100 when the wind hit. On top of it, visibility had
actually gotten worse and was no more than 50 m. Thinking of the
“gale” warning I received this morning I turned tail and headed
back to base. By the time I got back to the shuttle, the weather had
cleared. Damn.
Walking through cloud is an interesting
experience. The low visibility and the mist gives a unique
atmosphere. It's neat watching people walk out of the mist. The
“cloud” also precipitates onto your hair, but keeps your skin
dry. Eye lashes seem to attract the moisture causing your face to
rain.
I was too tired to head back up after
the several hour hike down so I went to the Tassie Devil Farm. They
have an interesting mating ritual; the men fight, the winner then
“fights” the female and then she lets him drag her back to his
burrow. I know some human females like it that way too.
