by 11640 » Sat 04 Jan, 2014 7:35 pm
Hey, I walked the Arm River track in January last year so I knew there was a steep bit then easy walking. I knew that the track was clearly a track and if I stayed on it I would be fine.
In the Dixon's Kingdom hut book (WOJNP) someone wrote that they walked in during the night and I was inspired. It was my first real night walk, which at first was a bit scary, but soon became so peaceful.
At first I just wanted to climb Ossa as a daytrip to say I did it in a day. I was meant to be going later in the week, but Tuesday afternoon I realised I had the Wednesday off work, so I decided to go straightaway.
I got home from work at 4:30 and started driving at 8:30 and arrived just before 1:00am. I was planning on getting a few hours sleep first before leaving, but I was wide awake and knew that I wouldn't get any real sleep anyway.
While driving there I thought it would be cool to see the sunrise from Ossa. I met a couple of German tourists who got up at 4:00am one morning to climb Frenchmans Cap (from the hut) to see the sunrise and I was inspired by them.
I wasn't thinking about being the first up there in 2014 untill half way around Mount Doris I looked back at Pelion Gap and thought I saw movement.... that's when I realised I may be the first and some competitive instinct kicked in inside me.
But after reading Naturelovers post about camping up there I decided I may not have been the first for the year. It is entirely possible for someone to have been up there at midnight and then be back down in the hut before I walked past at 4:00am.
I am just glad for the opportunity to have been able to do it. We Tasmanians are spoilt with choices of amazing walks.