CAIT AROUND THE WORLD

February 27, 2023 — I finally roused myself from bed around 9:30am and checked the weather on my phone. I’d made up my mind to go up Mt Wellington/kunanyi while in Hobart as I’d heard from lots of people that it was a must-do and because I felt very ready to climb more mountains after having done so much hiking over the past seven days.

I got dressed in one of my athletic t-shirts and in my bike shorts with pockets. I packed protein bars and made sure I had my phone. (Although I didn’t grab my portable charger because it was basically dead and had to be left at the hostel, plugged in and charging. Don’t do that if you’re planning to climb a mountain.) I tossed my sweater on over my t-shirt because it was a bit cool that morning and walked out the door and down to the bus stop that would take me to Fern Tree.

When I got on the bus, I found out that Hobart buses don’t take credit card. They only allow cash or Metro Card. As far as I can tell, Metro Cards are only available for residents, and I didn’t have any cash on me. When I found this out, I figured I’d have to head back to the hostel and get cash, then meet the next bus. Thankfully, the driver waved me on and I took the bus to Fern Tree.

Fern Tree is about twenty minutes outside of Hobart and is the starting point for a lot of tracks up and around Mt Wellington. It took me a little time trying to figure out which track I should take because I wanted to make it to the summit. I was also trying to find drinkable water because I’d realized that I only had one full water bottle with a little bit left in the other one. I decided on hiking up the Pillinger Drive Track to The Springs, where I was hoping there would be drinkable water or at least somewhere to get it.

I took the Pillinger Drive Track to Radfords Track and followed Radfords Track for 800 metres up to The Springs. These tracks were fairly inoffensive, though they had quite a bit of uphill and I was breathing pretty heavy by the time I made it up to The Springs. Thankfully, there was a small food truck-style cafe where I was able to purchase bottled water because the tap water wasn’t potable unless it was boiled first. I filled up my water bottles and dropped the plastic bottles in the recycle bins. From The Springs, lots of other tracks start and run up and around the mountain. You can also drive up to the pinnacle from here. When I visited, the main track to the top was closed. I’d known about this, as a friend I met on my tour had gone up the mountain before and had hiked up just on the road. With my newfound confidence in taking more difficult hiking tracks, I decided to take the challenging route up the mountain and followed the Ice House Track to the South Wellington Track, which led the rest of the way up the mountain to the summit.

I was really glad that I had more experience under my belt before attempting this because I didn’t feel too nervous or out of my depth on the trail. It still took me quite a while to read the top and it was really wet on parts of the trail, which made it difficult to navigate at times. On the way up, though, there were incredible views and I’m so glad that I decided to go up the mountain the way that I did. It was incredible.

At the summit, I actually saw one of the couples who were on the seven day tour with me! Such a small world. We chatted for a few minutes while hoping that a cloud would move out of the way of the view over Hobart. Although it didn’t move completely, I still got beautiful pictures and had had an amazing view while walking up.

I climbed the rocks at the pinnacle which marked the absolute summit of the mountain and spent a few minutes in the enclosed lookout area having a couple of my protein bars.

While I was walking up the mountain, I’d decided that there was no way I was going to walk back down the way I’d come up. By the time I headed back down, it was past two in the afternoon. It had taken me about three hours to hike up and it would probably take at least that to climb back down the way I’d come up. So, instead, I followed the road down the mountain. The constant downhill was an exercise in drudgery and control of already exhausted muscles, even though it was definitely a lot easier than climbing down the way I’d come up would have been. I was already slightly regretting not taking the summit-to-city shuttle back down.

When I made it to The Springs again, I sat for a moment before forcing myself to get up and continue. I still had to make it back down to Fern Tree and sitting down would not accomplish that: it would only make it harder to get back up and keep going. I pushed through those last couple kilometres and emerged back in Fern Tree at about ten to four in the afternoon. And when I checked my phone, I found out that I had just missed the bus back to the city by four minutes. On top of that, the next one wasn’t coming through for another hour.

The day caught up to me — the exhaustion from climbing the mountain, the stress of getting up and back down, the deep desire I had for a shower and a soft bed — and I broke down in tears.

So that was fun.

What was I going to do for an hour while I waited for a bus? I had about fifteen percent battery left on my phone: I couldn’t afford to drain my battery by reading to pass the time. After waiting for a few more minutes at the bus stop, hoping against hope that the bus hadn’t actually been through yet, I gave up and stood once more. If I couldn’t get on the bus right away, I could at least walk a little closer to town and catch up with the bus eventually.

That plan, of course, was not without its own faults. I walked from stop twenty-five to stop twenty-two and in that time, a bus went by me. As far as I know, that one might not have been in service, as when I finally did sit down at stop twenty-two, I had a bus go by me that wasn’t in service, but two came from the opposite direction within minutes of each other on their way up to Fern Tree. Someone explain that one to me. I’d sat down about fifteen minutes before the bus was due to come to the stop. When it finally arrived, it was thirty minutes late and I was so relieved to finally be on a bus as I’d been sitting outside covered in goosebumps from the the chill of the afternoon and the cooldown from the hike. I’d been sitting and worrying about if the driver would let me on because I still didn’t have cash, but thankfully the same thing happened as the morning, with the reminder to have cash next time.

We made it back to Hobart shortly after five that evening and I made a quick pit-stop at the grocery store for provisions with the plan to make a boatload of pasta that would last me the next couple of days. (Not that I needed to. I actually wound up having to get rid of most of it because it didn’t turn out all that great and because I had to get on a plane back to Sydney and couldn’t take it with me.)

My first order of business was to make dinner and I cooked up chicken in a ton of butter and spices, plus vegetables and spiral noodles. After eating what I could and getting the rest into my gifted container and into the fridge, I went upstairs and got the things I needed to shower. It felt so good to warm up even more and soap away the day’s activities. I climbed into my bunk shortly after and wound down from the day before I finally brushed my teeth and fell asleep.

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