A Dangerous Business

Hello! It’s been a minute, I know. Fear not, you haven’t missed much. I haven’t been on any long hikes since I left the Grampians last year. Well, there’s been plenty of day hikes around the place but nothing really to write home about.

Truthfully it’s been a pretty quiet year in terms of adventures, notwithstanding a 50km ultramarathon I completed back in July (eventually I’ll get around to writing a race report on it). That’s been a deliberate choice as I’ve made some grander plans for 2026 that required me to save up my annual leave and not take any major trips this year.

That said, I am writing this post having just taken off on a flight to Tasmania. It’ll be my second time visiting Australia’s southernmost state, the first being a family trip in 2022. I remember ignorantly dismissing it as just being a budget version of New Zealand, but once I got there I quickly realised how wrong I was. I’m really excited to go back, not the least of which because it’s one of the few areas of Australia where it’s bearable to hike in the summer.

I won’t be going alone, being joined by three good friends who don’t really have a lot of experience in these multi-day expeditions. Before Christmas, we spent the weekend in a small town called Childers, the highlight being climbing up Mt Walsh, a short but very steep track that we really ought to have done in winter.

Meanwhile, a bunch of Tasmania was treated to a white Christmas. As cool (pun intended) as it would be to walk through the snow, it does come with added risks that are probably best avoided when you don’t have much experience with that sort of thing. It should warm up by the time we start, but still I fear we may have underestimated just how cold it’s gonna get down there.

…I just realised I haven’t even mentioned the track we’re going on. Great job, me! We will be taking on the Overland Track, probably the most well-known tramp in Tassie, a roughly 75km trail from Cradle Mountain to Lake St Clair. I visited Cradle on my aforementioned family trip, but only to do a day hike through the park.

This time we’ll be going a lot further. It won’t be an easy walk per se, but with 3 of us having minimal experience with this sort of thing, I figured it would be best to pick a well trodden track with good facilities. Once this is done, we can start talking about doing the TA together. In the meantime, I’m spending a couple nights in Hobart by myself to explore the city and climb Kunanyi/Mt Wellington as a shakedown before the main event.

It’s good to be back…