Mt. Field National Park campsite
Today was a traveling day full of many hitches. It was raining this morning when I woke up in my tent at Fortescue Bay, so I was not particularly motivated for an early start. Eventually I got packed up and started the walk out just after 9am. It was a 12km dirt road out to the main road from the park. In the first hour of walking I had 2 cars go by and neither stopped. Things weren’t looking so good for me, but thankfully a car did stop and give me a lift after one and a half hours. They were 2 men from Port Arthur who were down to check out the road because they were planning to bring their boat down on a trailer later. From the main road I got a lift with a woman who was taking her 2 grandkids to the country fair some 10km up the road. There I got a lift with a woman who took me to Murdunna where she gave me a little tour of the town and showed me her house before taking me back out to the road. She has traveled to over 90 countries in her lifetime and she chose Tassie as the place to settle down and retire!
I waited in front of the little shop in Murdunna for the next ride, and eventually got a lift with a girl who works at one of the restaurants in Port Arthur. We had a good girl talk about guys and relationships which is always an interesting topic. She dropped me off in Copping, and there I waited on the road for about 10 minutes and then got picked up by a man named Tim who was on his way back to Hobart after tending to his oyster farm in Port Arthur. He works for the education ministry and has 2 boys my age. We stopped in Sorell on the way, and he got some fish and chips and I had a coffee.
Tim dropped me off on the north side of Hobart so I’d have a better chance of getting a ride. It was a busy road there and it took awhile to get a lift, but finally a guy stopped who took me to Granton. He was a tradesman and yet another Tasmanian, born and bred. He has been to the mainland once but has never been overseas. At Granton I got a lift straightaway from a guy who is a truck driver and was on his way home from work. He took me to New Norfolk where I stopped at Woolworth’s and did my food shopping.
At 4:30pm I was back on the road with all of my groceries trying to get the last 40km ride to Mt. Field National Park. I was lucky and got one ride the whole way with an older man named Bill who is from Perth but moved to Tasmania 4 years ago. He only lived half-way to the park, but we dropped off his groceries and then he kindly gave me a ride the rest of the way! He has a beautiful old house that him and his wife are planning to make into a B&B. It was very nice to get a tour of the area in addition to the ride.
I finally made it to the campground here after 5pm when Bill dropped me off, and I was quite proud of myself that I actually got to my intended destination all in one day and just before dark. Here I am paying $6 to camp, but at least they have hot showers that work (unlike Fortescue Bay) and a laundry machine which I shall use first thing in the morning. After 5 days of walking, the shower was absolutely wonderful!
Ok then I think I shall skip that one!
Km after km of burnt-out trees from an old forest fire
Add comment April 3rd, 2004