Overland Track log #3

I stopped taking notes on the third day. I was having way too much fun to sit down quietly and write.

It turned out that there were several groups of people who had more or less the same itinerary and we kept meeting each other on the track or in the huts. We bonded over knee-deep mud, ice cold huts, jealousy of and scorn about the guided tour and their luxury accommodation. We called them the Glamour Girls, since some of them even wore lipstick on the track.

Among “my group” there was a Tasmanian family (Michael And Co.) with their adult daughter plus two family friends. There were a boy and two girls (The Kids) who had just finished high school and chose to accomplish something more challenging than getting pissed at the Gold Coast, like many of their school mates. There were two middle aged men (The Boys), and a father with his adult daughter (Dad And Daughter). I don’t know what nickname I was given, people were too nice to tell me.

So finally, in my third month in Australia, I got to hang out with Australians! Everyone was awfully nice, and it’s funny how first impressions change after a few days together. The Kids were super sweet, and apparently impressed by my walking experience! They kept asking me if I had blisters as well (I didn’t) and if I was sore at all (I wasn’t). Also, my youthful demeanor made them think I was younger than I am, and they even took me to see the new Bond movie in Hobart a few days after the walk.

Dad And Daughter seemed a bit quiet at first, but the daughter was actually hilarious, and the dad a swing dancer.

The Boys were funny in their way, too. At one point, at the top of a waterfall, I saw them sitting naked on two rocks and enjoy the sun. That gave me the courage to draw blank and skinny dip as well, a bit downstream though. I really needed a wash.

I hope I didn’t shock the young, close-by German gentleman too much when I undressed. But I couldn’t get rid of him and actually I didn’t really care whether or not he was shocked. The night before, he had joined us in the hut and we had talked for a bit. After he had used the words dystopia, juxtaposition, and Dostojevski in one and the same sentence with me politely pretending to be interested and nodding knowingly I was considered worth conversing with, and the only way out had been going to bed early.

I preferred the company of my Australian walking buddies.

We had one day with a bit of rain, hail, and cold winds, but were extremely lucky to see the sun every other day at least for a bit. The track was muddy anyway, and on two days my feet were completely soaked. One lady from my group fell face first in the mud and enjoyed a free spa treatment. I once slipped on a wet root and fell on my side and back in the mud. I couldn’t easily get up with my heavy backpack and felt like a beetle on its back. One Glamour Girl got stuck in the mud and turned her ankle. She had to walk for two more days with an injured ankle before she could be helicoptered out, since the weather was too bad to do it right away. Good times! I hope I’ll be able to put up some pictures next week, because it was soo pretty!