Tasmanian Wilderness Expedition 2004 30 days 2 Air-Drops River Crossings No Walking Tracks 300km Untouched Coastline Chris Bray & Jasper Timm	Currently only diary exerts are available. The whole diary will be uploaded soon. Taken from Hike Day 3 – Monday 9th February 2004 “Very thick, hard, semi-stunted tight Banksia trees, which poked, scraped and tore at our arms and packs. Often the easiest way to progress was literally over the top of the scrub rather than through it. Grab the top, pull it down to knee height and climb on top of it and crawl, wade/drag yourself through it, often well clear of the ground, supported on a mass of gnarled branches – some which gave way dropping us into a pit of spikes, etc. Very hard going….” Taken from Day 4 – Tuesday 10th February 2004 “…we got to a point where there was almost nothing to step onto - very sheer, slippery and continually getting washed by massive ocean waves. We decided to tie a rope to our packs, so if someone fell in, we could undo pack straps, swim away from rocks, then pull pack back in on rope…” Taken from Hike Day 5 – Wednesday 11th February 2004 “We found a suitable tent site and dropped gear. Huge sand dunes in front of tent site. We are both very hungry and so we went food hunting, wandering along the beach. We collected a little bag of tiny mussels (about 2cm long), a little fish that was in a rockpool. Had a bit of a wade in the shallows looking for abalone (lots of large shells on beach), but found none. Must be deeper….” Taken from Hike Day 8 – Saturday 14th February 2004 “…The whole campsite was a cloud of March Flies. At any point in time you had anywhere from 20 – 100 flies on you. Each one trying to stab you… The flies were horrible, so I retreated into the tent for a while. After closing the flaps, you can kill any inside and feel entirely safe. I then looked at the rest of the expedition on the maps, while culling the fly population from inside the tent. I probably killed about 100-200 all up, but it didn’t seem to affect them at all. We then decided to have some milky coffee, finishing the last of our food reserves, still waiting for the airdrop….. anytime now guys……” Taken From Hike Day 12 – Wednesday 18th February “…To our unfortunate surprise we found there is only one pudding left L. We’ll survive no doubt, we had a cup of tea to warm us up. Very windy here, there are huge sea rock walls blocking massive waves from washing our tent away. You can hear the huge waves crashing into them. Occasionally you can see waves splash higher than the 20m high sea walls! There is foam and sea spray hitting our tent. Crazy. I hope our tent doesn’t flow away tonight. At least there are no mozzies or flies…” Taken From Hike Day 13 – Thursday 19th February 2004 “…Rocks gave way as we climbed, a very large one pulled out of the cliff I was climbing on above me and I was very lucky in having it fall and slam into the rocks below to the left of me. This happened again and again – without energy we’d somehow fight up into the scrub – wrestle through it and down the other side, only to be faced with the same problem at the next sea cave…” Taken From Hike Day 15 – Saturday 21st February 2004 “…this is the most unpleasant section of Tasmanian Wilderness we have seen – wet, drizzling, everything mossy and spongy, razor grass metres long, bogs, trees that are always too strong to break out of the way, but snap when you try to use them for support, sending you sprawling through razor grass that is over head height or into mud. Packs are absolutely muddied all over and wet inside and out. Mine also stinks. Whole place is utterly miserable – progress is essentially a series of falling forward or backwards and using every ounce of energy to drag yourself and your pack upright again…” Taken From Hike Day 16 – Sunday 22nd February 2004 “…It was about this time that the rain started to dribble, then pour, then completely drench us and our packs. We thought it couldn’t get worse then…..it hailed! And it hurt! Struggling to find shelter, all our clothes, shoes, socks, packs getting sopping wet. Too late to put Gore-Tex on and even if we did, it would probably get torn. Utterly miserable.” Taken From Hike Day 17 – Monday 23rd February 2004 “…Decided to accept we’d get wet hiking boots, pulled thermals up inside Gore-Tex pants, and wade along the creek to speed our escape from this miserable jungle. Very cold but did save time. Then came to the end – round a corner and…BEACH!!! Hartwell Cove!! The sun was shining, sky blue…a flat grassy spot for the tent! It was pure Heaven. We both ran onto the beach with whoops of joy….” Taken From Hike Day 18 – Tuesday 24th February 2004 “Very slow, lazy start to the day. Chris got up first, at about 8.15am or so, and ran to the beach outside; searching for some warm sunlight. Wasn’t quite there yet and it was freezing cold, so we quickly ran back in the tent and we slept in till about 8.40. When we got up we made a coffee quickly and then ran out to the beach/cove to drink it in some sunlight.”