KatieTheKat

It's Dec. 29th here, the 28th at home, of course. Katie and I made the long flight from Hobart to Perth today. The big city is a different world after peaceful little Tassie. The first thing that happened was a reality check. On the city bus coming in from the airport there was the usual big city assortment of people. We stopped at one of the suburban communities and a noisy group got on. It turned out that the noise was issuing from one source, an angry young woman who was scolding her mother for being drunk and for forcing her to have to take care of her. Along with them was another sister and brother. The other sister was quiet and the brother subsided after a mild attempt at intervention earned him the threat that he would be lit into if he didn't stay out of the diatribe. The sad thing is that this was an aboriginal group. In Tassie, they have no problems with aboriginal people because they basically exterminated them as soon as they came into conflict with the needs of the white settlers for land and more land. There are lots of politically correct interpretive areas, but the silence of the people echoes. All that are left are a few with very dilute heritage. The experience made me understand once again our privileged but precarious situation in this world.
Katie and are going to do some chores like burning a cd of her camera's memory card for me to take back to Canada, finding a camping equipment store that sells the butane cartridges for my gaz backpacking stove, buying some provisions for the next week. Then we will take a bus out to a small town, Mundaring. It is on the way to the track that we are planning on hiking a few days of. There is an outdoor cinema there which we are looking forward to for some light entertainment before heading into the bush.
Just a few words about the rest of our time in Tasmania. We did the circuit of the Freycinet Peninsula National Park. That brought us to an unbelievably beautiful spot called Wineglass Bay for Christmas day. A classic secluded, white sand, turquoise water beach. The hike was beautiful every step of the way. The wind was strong on one side of the peninsula. I saw a small hawk resting stationary on that wind, looking out to sea. So many shells on the beach, I wished that I could take some home, but Australia has the same expectations about minimal impact that we do. I did collect a handful of the beach gravel made of decomposed pink granite for a young friend who has an aquarium at home. The granite formations were like sculpture, and organic looking at the same time. Part of the hike was in a highland area where we strode from rock to rock.
Well, after Freycinet we decided to go back to the mountains: Mt. Field National Park. We did an overnight hike into Twilight Tarn hut which was constructed in 1923 by an Alpine ski club. One room of the hut had mementos of that time: old wooden skis, photos, etc. They used to take the train up from Hobart on Friday afternoon, hike in carrying gramophone records, evening gowns, high-heeled shoes and tuxedos. Believe me when I say that this is still a remote location. They made them tougher back then! It reminded me of stories that my mom used to tell about bicycling out to Cordova Bay for a weekend of fun at a friend's beach house. She and her sister Jackie would ride back into town to go to work on Monday morning. She said they used to smell people's breakfasts cooking and they'd be so hungry, but happy looking forward to making themselves bacon and eggs before going off to their work.
I am having a stellar, as in 5 star, year. We stopped at fruit stands and bought fresh cherries and raspberries! I was harvesting a handful of berries in my own garden just a few weeks ago, and in another six months the cherry tree will be loaded again. Life is good.
Coming down from the mountains, Katie suggested that we go back out to the coast to a special hostel she camped at when she was bicycling around Tassie 3 years ago. It was good to get one more taste of the sea, and the hostel was so interesting. Limited water and drainage makes it necessary to use composting toilets and save grey water for irrigating the garden. Very ecological.
One last note: Katie was a perfect left-hand driver. She never got muddled or panicked as I would have. She drove confidently and well, she has amazing patience with her mom, and I feel very privileged to be able to travel with her. It's an opportunity that not every woman has.
I will have a few days in Sydney without Katie before my return. She is staying out here in Western Australia for a while longer. I'm looking forward to the challenge of managing on my own. Will I have the courage to go on an overnight bushwalk by myself? (Don't be alarmed, my dear sister, this would be a very frequented, civilized track, not real wilderness.)
Lynne

# posted by thekat : 5:28 am