What babies we were!

Oh for those pre-student-life/broken-bone fitness levels (and those awesome cargo pants). My aim is to be back at this level of fitness by the time I submit my thesis in July. Life goals. Not sure I’d be able to rock those pigtails anymore though – sigh…

This is us at Sydney airport, in readiness for the adventure to come

Laura had travelled the world on a yacht for five years with her boyfriend, but this was her first experience of hiking in the snow

Yeah, she was pretty stoked…

… being such a momentous first, we had to stop, of course, and make the obligatory snowman (snow wallaby?!)

In the evenings we’d bunk down in the huts, dry our boots by the stove, write in our journals and read aloud from the one book we allowed ourselves the luxury of carrying (Kerouac’s Satori in Paris)

By day two I’d come across another hiker who’d lost the means of containing her unruly locks, so I donated one of my hair elastics. Good grief, check out those classy waterproofs (we walked into St Clair on day five, bruised, battered, pack-sore and half frozen, but with a blissed out bounce in our step, singing ‘You Can’t Touch This’ in our ridiculous rain-pants and laughing all the way). That’s Barn Bluff in the background. Not a bad backdrop…

Barn Bluff – oh you beautiful thing!

Lovely tree forms by Lake Windemere

Dead trees against abundant mountain heath landscapes

Mt Ossa, Tassie’s highest peak – I’m yet to make it to the top. Next time I hike this trail, I am summiting this mountain, come rain, hail, snow or shine

Laura with Pelion East in the background

Roaming the mossy valleys

We hiked through days of this – paradise

Laura scrubs up pretty well after a shower…

… I, on the other hand, manage to maintain a certain level of scruffiness no matter how liberal I am with the shampoo… scrappy but happy x