Hiking & Packrafting solo and Unsupported through Tasmania 500km (Adventure Blog Series)
Pre adventure thoughts and motivations
Flying out from London, after setting up the final bits of logistics from Hobart, I'll begin the adventure by setting off from the north just outside Devonport and cut a path through the heart of Tasmania. Hike through the world heritage listed national rainforest. Taking in a number of lakes and rivers along the path. Climb the stunning Cradle Mountain and Tasmania’s highest peak Mount Ossa, before descending into the Walls of Jerusalem whilst keeping a look out for the now endangered Tasmanian Devil. Lake St Clair and Lake King William is where I begin Pack Rafting before taking on the rapids as I paddle the Derwent River.
Then I head into the Franklin Gordon National Park and packraft through Lake Gordon and Lake Pedder. It's here I join up with the Huon River and head East towards Castle Forbes Bay as I aim for Bruny Island and the Neck beach where the journey will end.
Life it seems at least thee days consists of ultimate contradictions. Two opposing worlds creating one stream of existence.
One is when I’m the businessman, the hustler, and these days the chef in London. After an adventure in the wild I plug back into the system and strive to create the opportunity to allow me to become free once more, if only a fleeting freedom at the cost of temporary insanity. This is the world as you know it; cities, bills, rent, dating, stress, TV, fear, greed, politics ohhhhhh the politics, all that bullshit, that’s the nature of the world.
The other at least for me represents an opposing picture. One where I get to live in the present and simply find solutions. I get to interact with people on another level, a calmer, kinder engagement. I get to breath again, oh the fresh air, that kind of purity is hard to find in a world where heads are often pointed down and interaction is isolated to online commentary.
I do love cities and the buzz and energy they have yet I’m also aware the more people living in one spot on top of each other creates a disconnection at times which is strange considering we are all far more connected than ever before.
I’m learning that one world doesn’t exist without the other, embracing both aspects of this conscious existence is perhaps a better way to go through life and the time I have on the planet we call home.
We each forge our own paths and mine is done with the knowledge that in a few years, a few moments even, my time here will be done and this inspires me to seek out whatever fun and interesting adventures there is, and I know there's a hell of a lot.
Cheers - TazMania