Tassie: Epic Adventure

The highlight of our Tassie trip was a kayaking adventure on Lake St Claire with Dad, Rhyanna and Zachary. It was gorgeous but tough going as we only have sit on top kayaks which are not built for speed. Plus we had an extra person and our attempt to just have them as a third person in the 2-man kayak ended in a desperate bid for land as the whole thing became submerged in the middle of the freezing lake. Instead Zachary braved the 3-hour hike alone and met the rest of us at Echo Point on the famous Overland Track. Justin and I slept in the bush hut while the other 3 put tents up on the little beach.
The tents on the beach:



Cooking tea next to the hut:
View from the jetty at Echo Point:


Dad and Zach taking a break after a bit of a hike:
The next day I did the hike back and was surprised to get back before the kayakers. Unbeknownst to us there was a wind warning out that day for small craft. Zachary and Rhyanna in the single kayaks had slogged their way through the waves to make it to the meeting point, having lost sight of Dad and Justin an hour before so we sat on the beach waiting as the sun got lower and lower in the sky. It turned out they had been forced to abandon the 2-man kayak after having to pull over to tip the water out every 100m. In a move that would make Survivorman proud they hid it in the bushes, hacked a piece of life jacket off with a pocket knife to mark to location on the track and then hiked back, with Justin wearing only Aqua shoes on the track that was rocky and involved lots of clambering over tree roots and muddy pits.
We topped off the grand adventure with a drive home at dusk as hundreds of wallabies threatened to leap out on the road at any moment!
It managed to snow up there the day after we got back but a few days later Dad was able to go up with a friend and his boat and easily retrieve the hidden kayak.