Warning: I am about to break the record for the number of times a person can use the word AMAZING in a single blog post.
It’s been just over two weeks since I was out in the wilds of high country Tasmania but the experience has left me feeling lost. I want to turn my life upside down and live in a hut in the middle of nowhere. Actually, that’s nothing new, it’s just that now I really have the urge to up-end my life like a losing monopoly player and DO IT.
The Walls of Jerusalem is this amazingly beautiful and sacred alpine wilderness. It sounds cliche but none of my photos will do any kind of justice to its beauty. So much so, that by day 4, I gave up and decided to be in the moment and enjoy where I was and who I was with.
“The Walls” are part of Tassie’s central plateau, formed back when dinosaurs roamed and Jurassic dolerite peaks pushed up through the earth, forming mountains around glaciers.
My best angle. Image by Monique Farmer (Women Want Adventure)
There are no roads. The only option is to hike in and out. No kiosks, no food drops, no hot showers, no flushing toilets, no bins. So protected and sacred that there is a boot wash before you enter to clean your feet of all those nasty mainland diseases. The National Park (NP) is situated next to Cradle Mountain NP, so you get the same alpine vibe but without the people. That also means that you need to walk in everything you will need for the week, and walk out everything you’ve used.
The Walls – looking up to Solomons Throne
The landscape was beautiful but the REAL highlight of the trip for me, was the people.
I haven’t laughed so much in a very long time. Rich, deep belly laughs from somewhere hidden deep beneath work, stress, paying bills and life. Being me is exhausting sometimes. I cannot imagine having any other set of individual people on this adventure with me. Every single person made that trip what it was. I really feel as though I left that trip with 7 new sisters and a brother! Monster, Rach, Dreddy, Demon, Wombat, Twilight, Mountain Goat and Little Spoon! My nickname was Feral. I enjoyed every second of the trip and would do it all again in a second. Even the tears and the emergency group hugs.
This image sums up our amazing group. Image by Monique Farmer (Women Want Adventure)Image by Wendy Russell (aka Twilight)
Here are some of my main highlights of The Walls adventure:
The Pencil Pine forests:
This magical place looks like a set from a Disney fairyland/Narnia/hobbit movie. These Forests are only found in this part of Tasmania (nowhere else in the world) and these trees are over 100 years old, growing only 12mm in diameter every year.
Alpine fairyland
Cushion Plants:
These plants spread as huge green mats along the ground, and are made up of thousands of individual stems that each grow at the same rate so that no individual stem is more exposed to the cold climate and conditions as the rest of the plant thus acting as their own little greenhouse. These plants are a keystone species – having a disproportionately large effect on the ecosystem. Without these plants to ecosystem would cease to exist and these plants are seen as the building blocks of Tasmanian alpine wilderness. Don’t be tempted to sit on one or even break off one of the thousands of stems, these plants die en masse. One stem breakage means the entire plant can no longer defend itself against the cold and the entire cushion can die.
Cushion plants either side of the walkway, looking towards Damascus’ Gate
Glacial Tarns and Lakes:
Jumping into glacial tarns (mini lakes) and lakes. Yes – glacial means cold. It snowed in the National Park all the week before we were there. Stripping down to your undies and jumping in on the first day was a little unexpected and yes, f*cking freezing!
Tarn on the way up to the top of Mt Jerusalem
Climbing Mountains:
Jurassic dolerite peaks to be more correct. The group climbed both Mount Jerusalem and Solomon’s Throne. Whilst it’s hardly Everest the views were amazing and there was a real sense of achievement – especially after scrambling up Solomon’s Throne in the howling wind.
From the top of Mount Jerusalem, you can clearly see where ancient glaciers used to flow, carving through these dolerite peaks and placing huge erratic rocks the size of houses throughout the landscape.
View from the top of Solomons Throne
Bush Bashing and Wildlife:
I don’t often wander off the designated trail, but it was so nice to be able to hike places that most people don’t normally see.
The wildlife is also pretty unique within the Walls. Wombats, wallabies, pademelons, possums, quolls, echidnas, platypus, skinks, snakes, frogs and numerous insects including the biggest bees I’ve ever laid eyes upon all live within the Walls.
Echidna friend on the first day
A Quick Itinerary:
Day 1: Briefing and packing our huge packs along with our last supper/dinner of all Tasmanian Produce.
Day 2: Leave Launceston, arrive at the Walls of Jerusalem carpark and Hike approx 8km mostly uphill, with a few stops (including an old Trappers Hut) for lunch and for me to strip off and jump into a tarn. Arrive at Wild Dog Campsite and set up tents.
Day 3: Morning: Day Hike from Wild Dog Camp through Herods Gate to our first view of “The Walls”. Through Damascus’ Gate to Dixon’s Kingdom and Dixon’s Hut via the pine forest and up to the top of Mount Jerusalem. It is thought that you can see over 3000 tarns and lakes from Lunch then an afternoon of bush bashing off-trail around “The Temple” and to the Pool of Bethesda. Hike back to Wild Dog Camp
Day 4: Morning: Day hike through Herods gate up to Solomons Throne, super windy so we were unable to traverse along the West Wall up to Kind David’s Peak. We were also unable to scale The Temple. Back to camp for lunch. The afternoon saw more off-track hiking along wild dog creek out to Tiger Lake and to Solo Man’s hut, then return.
Day 5: Unfortunately pack up camp and walk 8km back to the carpark, lunch at the cutest cafe and back to Launceston for a hat shower and recovery/celebratory drink (or two).
Looking up at King David’s peak
I did this adventure with Women Want Adventure (and Tasmanian Expeditions). Both of these companies were awesome. I have never had a bad experience with Women Want Adventure. Monique who is the CEO or CAO (Chief Adventure Officer) and an all-round amazing, inspiring person always puts together the best adventures. Please check out the website. She has so many awesome adventures and all activities cater for all activity and interest levels.
Tasmanian Expeditions were also amazing. I was well looked after, well educated, warm, well slept (even without air in my mattress) and most of all well fed! Rach, Damon and Nikki were the best tour guides, and all round great people. They even laughed at my jokes!
Thanks for reading about this amazing adventure! I really couldn’t do it justice – it was that good.
Sunset from the emergency helipadWild Dog Campsite. Image by Monique Farmer (Women Want Adventure)
Please excuse any typos – I’m too excited to post!
OK, so I have two. One involving my Mum, the other my Dad.
The first one was when I was probably, I’m guessing around 4 years old. I was out on the backstairs at our house at Westmead, with my younger sister Laura. I don’t remember there being an Aimee or if there was she would have just been born.
I remember distinctly being at the garage end of the back stairs as we were trying to play shops and this end could come up to our waist so that we could turn the individual steps into the supermarket shelves and at the end we had the ‘check out’ area.
We must have played this game day in and day out.
One day Mum came out and she said she had a surprise for us. She went in and packaged up in boxes were; all the empty (and washed out) food containers with the labels still on. What we would put in the recycling bin today (but ‘recycling’ didn’t exist back then). There must have been 50 different items that she’d saved up from the last few weeks of what we’d eaten. Breakfast cereals, egg cartons, cleaned out cans, you name it.
Everything to set up our own ‘shop’.
My second memory involves my Dad, I am guessing I was around the same age, perhaps even younger. It was a Saturday and we had spent the morning at the church fete, where I am assuming my Dad was working or helping. It would have been at St Andrew’s Church in Parramatta. (Now the Bavarian Beer Cafe).
Mum had taken me home to have a sleep after lunch. Later in the afternoon Dad came home and had bought me a doll that nobody had bought at the Fete and thought that I would like. To my Dad, the doll looked something like this:
This is legit from a 1975 movie called “Trilogy of Terror”
I cried and cried and cried until he took the “Golliwog” back to the fete. (Or maybe just out to the bin – may he/she rest in peace).
But I was also crying, because my Dad did this really nice thing for me and I completely panicked and didn’t want it. See – the “don’t be nice to me” kicked in early with me.
By the way: I understand that these dolls and the term “golliwog” is not the correct term and is a little racist and may cause offence, I mean no offence, but that is what the dolls were actually called back in the 70’s/early 80’s. I apologise for any offence.
This one was actually a pretty easy one, although I admire so many amazing women. I have actually been thinking of writing about women I admire a bit more often.
The woman who I really am in awe of at the moment is Lucy Barnard. Lucy has spent the last 2 years 8 months give or take, walking from the southern-most point in Chile, to the North-most accessible point of Barrow, Alaska. She is currently in Ecuador for the next month or so, before she crosses over to Columbia.
When she finishes she will be the first woman to walk the length of the earth. 10 men have achieved it so far. It was this single fact that led to her decision to give it a go.
To add even more awesome-sauce to this story. She is not doing the walk alone, she has her very trusty and loyal Blue Heeler – Wombat to accompany her. Wombat just turned 1, and yes, he carries a backpack as well. He is her little “Sugar Sherpa!”
Next week I am going to Tasmania, hiking for about 4-5 days, I am freaking out over what to take, which back pack, how to pack. All of the things. Just for perspective: Lucy has walked through the Atacama Desert, Patagonia, through ice and snow. Each one for months! Oh and did I mention, that before she left, she was hit by a car while participating in a charity bike ride, sustaining a head injury and losing the ability to walk. During her recovery she made the decision to embark on this adventure.
In 2017, she won the North Face Adventure Grant, and this year the Australian Geographic Nancy Bird Walton Scholarship, and I cannot think of a more worthy recipient.
If you would like to follow Lucy’s adventure (and maybe even donate to her and Wombat), her website can be found here: Tangles + Tail. Her Instagram. Her Twitter. Or her Facebook page.
Secondly, I appreciate it when someone actually takes the time to actually end things, rather than just disappearing until I telepathically realise you’re finished with me and that I should just go away.
Apart from that, my overall preferred method for being the breaker or breakee is the text message. I don’t want to see you. I especially don’t want to see you if the sole purpose of you doing the dumping in person is for you to see how upset I am. Therefore boosting your ego and making me feel even worse. That is assuming that I am upset.
The text message is something I can experience alone. Which is ironically has now re-become my present and my future. Alone. Singleness. I can react to it however I damned well like. Which coincidentally is the same way I will live my life without you. Exactly as I damned well like.
Maybe stretch it to a phone call or in person if we’re engaged or married.
Make sure you leave me alone afterwards, don’t keep texting to see how I am, don’t keep popping up on my friend’s social media. Don’t send me any dick pics. Just go. Disappear. You are dead to me now. Don’t DM me in a couple of months to say you miss me. Don’t tell me you think of me often. You made your decision. I don’t care how you’re dealing with it.
To say I wish nothing but the best for you, would be a complete lie. I usually hope that you get some horribly painful flesh eating bacteria in your self sacred nether regions and that it falls off via a very painful torturous drawn out process. Or that a future girlfriend decides to severe it off with the side of a spork.
“Hello? I’m just calling to let you know that I don’t want to see you again…ever!”
Human beings (led by white middle aged man babies playing a game of mine’s bigger than yours) will destroy the earth to the point where humanity is unable to survive.
Whether this happens in one quick war or over the next couple of hundred years, painfully and slowly, I am not sure of.
The earth will survive and start just as it began as a rock revolving the sun.
It will start it’s own evolution again. With whatever has been left.
Who knows maybe in a couple of million years time a new species will be digging up ‘human fossils’ the way we dig up the dinosaurs and will put our bones on display.
Humanity will be a blip in the earth’s life. An annoyance the earth put up with for a few thousand years.
The beginning of the end is the end of the beginning. And so it goes…..
I have anxiety so I am afraid of everything. I was scared when Coke told me that Coke Zero was being deleted. So yes, hiking sometimes scares me too.
Hiking sometimes does scare me, yes.
I try to mitigate the risks by sticking to well known trails, hiking during daylight hours, take first aid and emergency survival equipment. I normally take a Personal Locator Beacon (unless I know I will have phone reception). I also research where I’m going every time I attempt a new trail. Taking screen shots or printed maps if necessary.
I have so many worries. But let’s chat hiking worries for now.
My main ones are:
1. Stepping on a danger noodle. Otherwise known as a snake. Green and black are okay-ish but anything brown will probably see me create a little brown of my own. I generally don’t hike in the middle of the day and in warmer weather try to choose trails with a higher proportion of fire trails which tend to be wider.
2. Falling over and hitting my head on a rock. Losing consciousness, unable to call for help or set off the PLB.
3. Running into someone who sees me as a ‘crime of opportunity’. There are plenty of loonies out there. There have only been two times when I have walked past men, alone who have looked ‘dodgy’. I just kept walking and tried to put as much distance in between me and them.
4. Finding a body or witnessing a crime (like a murder), again hopefully sticking to the main trail and commonly known bushwalking tracks (in daylight) should help. Think Ted Bundy and Ivan Milat. Neither are dudes you want to casually bump into out there. “Oh hello, lovely day for it”, probably won’t get me very far.
If I do happen to die in a horrible hiking accident, then at least when the lights go out – I was doing something I enjoyed.
