Training Log Archive: jennycas

I got up early and drove down to Dove Lake intending to run around it but the fog was down to my kneecaps and it was bitterly cold. So I went home to pack, and when the sun came out later we drove down again and I took pictures of Cradle Mountain from the boatshed. There was twice as much water in the creeks as yesterday, after all the rain, so we did a couple of short boardwalks along Dove River and Pencil Pine Creek (it is possible to get sick of waterfalls) then drove down to Devonport via Deloraine and a cheese factory.

The wind and rain really hit as we were driving into Devonport, we got takeaway pizza and waited in the queue to board the boat and tried not to think about what the night would be like.

It rained all night after we got to Cradle Valley and was still raining when we caught the shuttle bus to Ronny Creek, and this was the pattern for the next 24 hours. The fog was down to our eyebrows, literally. Walked up past Crater Falls and Crater Lake (beautiful deciduous beech turning yellow) then down past Wombat Pool and Lake Lilla to Dove Lake. From the lookout above the lake, you couldn't tell that there was a lake down below, and when we were at the bottom Cradle Mtn appeared not to exist, so we walked to the boatshed, shivered some more, and caught the shuttle bus back to our nice warm cabin and log fire. Probably wouldn't have got so cold if i didn't spend so long taking photos; the walk took twice as long as it should.

Since my shoes were already wet I thought I'd use them some more, and ran down the road from our cabins to Pencil Pine falls to do a 6.5km loop that the guidebook described as "a good low-altitude walk for when the weather is bad". I was a bit startled by the sign suggesting that this walk would take 3 hours, but the track was good to Knyvet falls, and not bad to the bridge across the creek, but I should possibly have turned back at this point when I saw the sign "track not maintained".

This at 5pm, of course, and I hadn't taken a torch, and there's no light whatsoever in the myrtle forest when you're trying to follow ancient marker posts that have lichen growing over them, and then suddenly you're alongside the gorge with water rushing below (Dove Canyon) and you have to scramble up a rock crevice using hands and feet. Once I got out on to the buttongrass plain the light was better but the track worse, if anything, and I've never been so glad to see a boardwalk as I was when I got back to the main Cradle Valley route.

Must ask Zara if she did this run during the week before Easter - I wouldn't be surprised. If so, I wonder what her leech count was. There were 6 on me, mostly on shoes and O pants. Only one had got on my leg and drawn blood. We salted it liberally and it fell off straight away, but the bite is still itchy.

Short run to Hogarths falls and along the foreshore in Strahan. Pretty enough but we have seen way better waterfalls in the wilderness.

Cruise on Macquarie Harbour to Hell's gates, Sarah Island and up the Gordon river. I pity the 200 other people on the boat if the only rainforest wilderness experience they ever get is the 500m boardwalk we shuffled around at "Heritage Landing". Impressed by the infrastructure and organisation which was once in place at Sarah Island. It wouldn't have been much fun being either a convict, or an officer posted there to run the show.

Drove to Cradle Mtn afterwards.

(The best value for money on any day trip George and I have been on so far though, is the cruise you take from 1770 in Queensland on the bright pink amphibious vehicles known as the LARC. Only 30 people on the boat, and they take you sandboarding among other things. So cool!)

Hobart to Strahan via Tarraleah (historic power station village) and short walks at Lake St Clair, the Franklin river, and a waterfall near Queenstown. Got to Strahan on sunset and had excellent, though expensive, fish and chips. The whole town seems to be run by 'Strahan Village' which owns the hotel/motel, the cottages, a cruise boat, and about 3 restaurants, and they are in turn owned by the company which runs Wrest Point casino and the lodges at Cradle Mt and Freycinet (and wants to build the 8-storey hotel at Coles Bay).

Up Mt Stuart and over Knocklofty from our B&B in West Hobart. Felt good on the ups and the downs, and there were a couple of those just along our street even.

Visited the Australian Antarctic Division headquarters, the subantarctic house in the botanic gardens, and saw the icebreaker ship Aurora Australis in the harbour. I'd really like to go on a trip to Antarctica but am worried about the 20-metre waves.

Leisurely day in Hobart with George. Suspicions of a cold coming on. Gave a couple of German backpackers a lift back from the top of Mt Wellington. They walked up - we didn't!

I deciede to treat this like a rogaine and just focus on getting to the controls one at a time. And boy was I tentative! Any patch of bracken, ti-tree, or buttongrass, that I couldn't see where I was putting my feet, i slowed right down and walked one step at a time so as not to bash my shin on anything hidden. Any time I wanted to read the map, I had to stop to do so because I dared not take my eyes off the ground while running - I needed to see where I was putting my feet.

Consequently it was a very slow process, but a fairly clean run (jog). The only control I had trouble with was the last control, though I lost about 5 min when I stopped to readjust the bandage on my leg then forgot I had left my compass on the ground and had to go back for it. I still hate swamps with a passion, and may find an excuse to be somewhere else next March if that's where the NOL races are (could be a good opportunity to run 6-foot track?)

Pancakes at Mt Elephant Pancake barn were just what I needed afterwards :)