Unexpected Curveballs

In my last post I ended by saying that we had a wonderful first day on our first overnight hike but the tranquil and peaceful afternoon and evening turned into anything but.

We have three teenage boys so to have some time to ourselves and a bit of quiet is very rare and highly sought after.

We were sitting in camp and enjoying our quiet surroundings when we started to hear a very familiar sound, children, and lots of them!

What was this? It sounded like we were sitting outside a school after the afternoon bell has just gone off. We couldn’t believe it.

It was a school group on a school hike. For the rest of the evening we had to put up with the very distracting sounds of children laughing and talking. I must say though, to their credit, they were actually very well behaved and considerate of us but it just wasn’t the peaceful time away we had envisioned when we began planning our first overnight hike.

The trip back the next day was uneventful and as enjoyable as day one.

We did learn an important lesson when it comes to hiking. All the preparation and planning in the world can’t prepare for the unexpected. The best you can do is be as prepared as possible for any eventuality and then just take it as it comes with positivity and a good attitude.

Don’t let one (or more) unexpected curveball ruin from the whole experience.

Ubajee walkers' camp – Our first overnight hike

 

We finally did it.

In September of 2010 Margot and I finally managed to get enough gear together to head off for our very first over night hike. It was wonderful…….mostly.

We selected the beautiful Sunshine coast Greatwalk as the perfect location. Our thinking was, hike in and hike out and not too far so that if anything went wrong or our new gear didn’t quite work out we were not too far from help.

After pouring over maps and studying the DERM website we decided that the Ubajee walkers' camp suited our needs.

So we prepared and prepared, dehydrated, packed and very excitedly headed off for our first overnight hike.

Day one started at Mapleton Falls National park.

The hike kicks off through some absolutely beautiful rainforest. The first kilometer or so is an Australian grade 2-3 walk so there were a few day trippers but it didn’t take long and we were on the grade 4 track and into the hills of the sunshine coast hinterland.

Rainforest opened up into Picabeen palm forest with low ferns and then back into rainforest again. There are many very large felled trees that remain from the logging days that are now just ghosts of once great monsters now covered with a brilliant green moss.

After a couple of hours of taking our time and enjoying the peaceful and tranquil environment we decided to try out my new acquisition, the MSR Pocket Rocket stove and have a cup of coffee.

The stove worked like a little beauty. Only a minute after firing it up we were enjoying a much needed caffeine fix and listening to the birds and frogs next to the glassy stream we had selected as our morning tea spot.

We continued on after a shortish day of about 12 kilometers and before long we were selecting our site for the tent and cracking open our afternoon tea and putting the stove on for another cuppa.

Unfortunately it wasn’t to stay that way and our first night away turned into anything but peaceful and tranquil.

Find out why in my next post………

Damn Rats!!!

In October 2010 my wife and I hiked our first multi-day hike and we absolutely loved it. We spent 4 glorious days hiking the Conondale Range Great Walk in the Conondale range about 2 hours north of Brisbane.

The weather was magnificent and we got in just before the record rainfalls that hit QLD in November and December 2010.

However, it threatened to rain all three nights we were there. We don’t have a tent that is big enough to hold us and our two hiking packs so I came up with the ‘brilliant’ idea of placing everything in our packs and covering them with the inbuilt rain covers.

We awoke the next morning and as I was basking in the glow of my rain cover brainwave I noticed a little hole in the cover. What was the hell was this???

On closer inspection I discovered rats had eaten through my rain cover and then through my pack to get to the empty scroggin bag I had in the side zipper pocket. Damn rats!!

Needless to say the next night we hung all of our food up and out of the way of rubbish eating rodents.

Anyone have any run in with rats? Any clever ideas of how to avoid them eating through packs? (apart from hanging them from a tree)