Overland Track - Day 4: Pelion to Kia Ora

We survived our first night in a tent despite the rain and it was about 50x better (and quieter) than the huts. It seems like the sunny and clear weather was short lived, the cloud and drizzle is back. We head to the hut for our freeze dried brekkie (porridge with fruit today) and pack up our bags and tents. It takes us a long time to sort our stuff out. Not exactly seasoned hikers here. The forecast is rain today and that it does.

It’s not a huge hike today, but lots of side trips, weather dependent.

We set off in misty rain and into a forest. It's muddy and wet going under foot and tree roots are the norm. But the surrealness of the environment  is making up for hard walking. We are steadily heading up. The route today will take us up 300 metres to the Pelion Gap saddle.

We reach the saddle where it's time to decide if we bother with either of the mountains to our left or right. We have Mt Pelion West, or Mount Ossa (via Mount Dorris). The weather is pretty grim, there won't be any views, we're not sure if it's worth it. But then we spot Cam (who's been dubbed the Mountain Goat) coming at us from Kia Ora with his daypack. He's off to do Mount Ossa today after already doing some others yesterday. We decide to escort him up as far as "The Japanese Gardens", not really sure what to expect.

We head up a steep mountain to the Japanese Garden. It's rainy and cold but it only adds to the experience. All of a sudden we're surrounded by what really does look like a Japanese garden with bonsai and green and all natural. Here we leave Cam to summit Mt Ossa, Tassie's highest peak. We'll come back for that one day in clearer weather.

We head back down and continue on our journey to the next camp spot for that night, Kia Ora. It rains the entire way and it's rocks and puddles for terrain. Part of the trek is through some very eerie open moor/scrub, with leafless trees and foggy backdrop. It's so silent. We finally make it to camp completely sodden and then the sun peeps out for all of 47 seconds. We bask in it and decide we better put the tent up. Make tent while the sun shines, as they say.

We pitch our tent and get a few things sorted when we spot Cam just back from the mountain trip. He has run back and wants to get in the nearby river.

We follow him down. He slides into the freezing water (literally, it's not much above 0). Jeff puts his feet in. Works wonders on the inflammation.

The gang is all back together and we decide to take our dinner alfresco tonight (rehydrated chicken carbonara tonight, which turns out more like a chicken noodle soup). We are avoiding eating in the common space in the hut because it's too hot and noisy and crowded. The view from the hut deck is of Cathedral Mountain and we spend the arvo and evening watching as the weather rolls over the mountain, changing its mood every 5 minutes.

Before bed a very cheeky possum makes themselves known. It's come to see what food it can get (big no-no feeding or touching any wildlife). Obviously not it's first rodeo as it's not scared of people and is practically jumping in people's laps. We leave the possum to the walkers and scurry off to our tent, it's after 7pm after-all.