Kept getting woken up by animals around my tent in the night, I had to keep shooing some away as they probably wanted food.
Up and ready this morning said hello to some wallaby friends, a mum and a little baby that came bouncing through as I ate breakfast.
Felt my ankle swelling had gone down.
Set off from camp at a good pace, stopped to guzzle a litre of fresh stream water.
Made great time and ended the Overland track at Narcissus hut. Sat down with a family from Canberra and chatted with them at the picnic table as they finished off their lunch.
Made for Lake St Clair jetty and began preparing the pack raft. Boy I was absolutely buzzing to finally get a chance to use this. Sooooo excited and on Lake St Clair, Australia’s deepest lake with a depth of 160 metres.
At the jetty there was a crowd from a tour group that were really inquisitive and interested so had fun getting ready with them watching and engaging, it took my mind off the fact that as excited as I was it's also pretty nervy, I'd never been in a packraft before.
Said goodbye to them as they got the ferry then soon after I followed, sloshing one way then another, I pulled in at a sandbar just before the lake opened up and redistributed the weight, putting one pack behind me and one in front.
Paddling along I felt really slow but enjoyed the freedom of the lake, getting an amazing picturesque view of Tasmania’s central highlands.
The views were something else, just deep blue running into greens and topped with mountains, I was so happy, simply excited!!!
I checked the GPS on my phone and had actually been making great ground; there was a wind behind me, which must have helped push me onwards.
I headed over to the left-hand side of the lake and took the bend towards the entrance of the Derwent River and after carrying my sunglasses for a week finally used them today out on the water and promptly lost them. I'd barely worn them until today, until two hours ago, made me chuckle a little though.
The river got very shallow as I went through a gap and eventually had to portage it over the entrance to the Derwent River.
Once I’d put the boat back in the waters had become a lagoon, very shallow with lots of grass and jumping fish.
Following this down, there was some flow driving me forward under a bridge. I jumped up as it was so shallow, eventually succumbing to the pull of the water and went with it. I was immediately confronted with rocks poking through before another small drop. I navigated my way around a bunch then took a look further downstream and with no evidence of a way the raft would survive opted to get out and, on foot, dragged the raft to the river's edge, deflated it and hiked out and around on the road for an hour to the Derwent Bridge Wilderness Hotel where I'd sent a package ahead full of food, dry bags and a Personal Flotation Device (PFD).
Once here I charged all my gear and ordered the now customary Boags draft beer as well as a roast dinner.
Chatted with my girlfriend Stacey and mum and dad before heading down the highway with my head torch on in the pitch black not knowing where I'd lay my head tonight, but to my glee a few hundred metres walking and I found a nice camping spot, set up and chomped into a violet crumble chocolate bar before calling it a night.
Thanks for reading my adventures - TazMania
