Walls of Jerusalem - easier said than done :-)

In the last days on Tasmania we had planned to make a track which is called "Walls of Jerusalem". Tasmania got out all tricks it has in store for odd tourists who think they can do a 'nice weather track' just like that. :-)

Attempt I:
When we started the weather was bad: clouds, little showers of rain..but nevertheless we thought the weather would get better - relying on the forecast. But instead we met hail and freezing cold up there on the highland at about 1000m hight. Nature had a completely different intimidating aspect now compared to our first track at clear blue sky. We stayed at the camp up there overnight sustained by gloves, cap, thermo-trousers and thermo-shirt, two sleeping bags. And in the morning of the second day is was...worse. No mountains, no landscape at all around us...0nly clouds...hmpf ... ok, we went down. defeated and sad. :-(

As soon as we reached the valley the sun came out !! Hallo???!! Ahhh! We drove to the next town for the night and when we woke up the next morning there was NOT ONE CLOUD in the sky!!! blue, blue, blue...wherever you looked. and the mountains laughed at us from the horizon! hmpf! we were so angry and disappointed!!!
we vigorously ignored the 'mocking' mountains till 3pm when we could not longer resist:

Attempt II:
We packed our bags again to rush off at 3:30pm up again to the first camp:
We reached the camp at 6:00 pm in the most wonderful evening sun!!! great! great! great! but it seemed to us, that we haven't been here at all! noting looked the same! all seemed different in the sun! The mountains gave the impression that they could not do any harm at all! We enjoyed it very much and were glad to have gone up again despite the double hardship. On the next morning however the weather started to detoriate again. Quickly we claimed the mountain top of 'Mount Jerusalem' and still had some spectacular views although is was already very windy and cold, clouds gathering together loomingly. Quickly again we retreated to the camp took our bagpacks and were eager to get off the mountains as even more bad weather seemed in store. At the moment we reached the car it started to rain and did not stop till we left Tasmania on the same evening.
HA! Finally we beat the weather and made it to the top though! :-) We were glad, it was quite exhausting :-), but it was worth it...more than!

We post again some pictures. Compare the pictures from the first attempt (bad weather) with the pictures from our second attampt (better weather :-) ..it's quite an amazing difference, isn't it ?!
So, Good-Bye Tasmania! Thank you ! It was great!

Tasmania

We are still alive and have managed to find an internet :-)
Although the weather here changes rapidly between rain, sun, warmth and cold we had the luck to do a 4-day-hike in the Cradle Mountain Nationalparc and had blue sky and sun nearly all the time. It was great! We did a part of the famous 'Overland Track' and although we had to carry our heavy bagpacks filled with food, tent, mats and sleeping bag, we enjoyed the track very, very much. We slept on high plateaus under blue sky with the most spectacular panorama imaginable!!! :-)
Take a look at the pictures from the track!
We even had the luck to spot a Wombat roaming around our tent!!! JIPIIIEEEHH! (Just for your information: wombat-shit has the form of cubes about 2x2 cm big.)

After that we drove a lot throughout the whole country mostly along the beautiful coast. It seems that every street, bridge, church, house, harbour, carpark, supermarket, internetcafe etc. ... which looks "historic" has been built by convicts. The british used the island as a prison in the early years and had the "house furnished" completely before they moved in themselves ;-).

Here are the pictures of the rest of Tasmania we saw ;-)!

We will do another track on monday - for three days. We hope the weather will be generous again. On the 26th of November we will go back to Melbourne to continue our journey on the mainland.
We hope you are all well and look forward to hearing from you.

Renate & Mirko