As my Dad would say - spring is sprung, the grass is ris, I wonder where all the birdies is. Yes, he really says that, you see what I had to put up with when I was growing up? Anyway, spring is here (and almost gone again) in the southern hemisphere, the calves have been born, the little lambs are running around, the flowers are coming out, and summer is just around the corner, yes it is. Winter was actually quite mild, even though it did snow in Hobart for the first time in almost 20 years – oh the kerfuffle that caused! The front page of the paper the next day had a photo of one of the beaches covered in snow, which just goes to show what passes for news down here.
I've been doing quite a few bushwalks, down the south coast for a bit and shortly after that up in the central highlands to a very lovely spot called the Walls of Jerusalem. A mate of mine and I spent three days traipsing around, cameras in tow (the weather was a bit too shit though to get any good snaps), and we were literally the only people for miles. I know what you're thinking - two rugged, swarthy blokes, spectacularly alone in the wilderness, sharing a cosy, ancient log cabin set amongst a backdrop of jagged mountains, sparkling lakes and 1000 year-old pencil pines . . . well it was purely platonic, got it? Interestingly enough, parts of the BBC documentary Walking With Dinosaurs (going back a few years now though) were filmed in the WoJ park.
I also walked The Overland Track, five days trekking through the heart of breathtaking, rugged Tasmanian wilderness, which is widely regarded as Australia's premier bushwalk. The scenery is absolutely spectacular, and we climbed Mt Ossa, Tassie's highest mountain (don't worry folks, it's only 1617m above sea level). However, we did this in total white-out conditions, so what is supposed to be a superb view across half of Tasmania, was reduced to the dim outline of my mate standing five metres away and the occasional hunk of dolerite rock sticking up out of the snow. Because of this disappointment I went back two weeks later to climb it again, and this time around the weather was much more forgiving, and I've included a couple of pics of Ossa from that trip. My next big walk will be a two-week extravaganza along the south coast in January (y'know, oz on my left, antarctica on my right). Should be ace.
I'm still working on the shed (it's actually quite big). For those that are interested, here are the major details to give you a rough idea: it's gonna be 500 square metres, it will have a cellar, lunch room, toilet and shower, a celery-top pine sundeck, it will be clad in celery-top pine weatherboards, and it will have a blackwood staircase going up to a myrtle floorboard mezzanine level. And a monorail! So there you go. On Saturday the main floor concrete slab is going to be poured, and after that things should move a little bit quicker.
As for my usual stories of travel - I have none! Because I don't have much money, I can't afford to travel – still, you are always welcome to drop in to my place for a visit.
