new to south coast walk 5-11/3/2011

[Luuk Veltkamp]

Thx guys/gals for ur suggestions, it looks like we might do the SCT after all hopefully with good weather condition for us to fly into melaleuka. someone mentioned about notifying tas air in advance about carrying separate fuel, what does that mean?

You are not allowed to fly with Fuel (yeh i know, how do the airlines get it in there...) They make you buy it at Melaleuca. Let the airline know what type you want and how much, then you pay for it when you check in. Once landed in Melaleuca, the pilot will get you your fuel.

Off topic here, but only certain pilots can fly with dangerous goods (ie. flammable fuel) once they have a dangerous goods certificate. This means your more likely low hour fresh CPL pilot won't have the required licence.

Back on topic - Enjoy the walk!!!

Sorry back off topic

Just for the record, we can fly Dangerous Goods just never with passengers, so we get the stove fuel in on empty flights along with the fuel for our boats, so if you need a liquid just bring your empty bottles!

Luuk Veltkamp
Par-Avion

Back on topic, have a great walk, the weather is bound to come good soon! Bring on summer!

[whiskeylover]

Walking poles has probably been covered elsewhere but anyway I thought I'd put in my two pennies worth.
I have had 2 Leki poles since I broke my leg when a boulder landed on me on Mother Cummins Peak 11 years ago.
They are ergonomically designed so they are comfortable in your hands and have adjustable springy things in them for different surfaces.
You can also get different tips for them depending what you want for different surfaces.
I have never had to change the tips (I have the ones that will grip in rock) and they have thingy's like ski poles have on them near the tips so they don't sink too deep into squishy mud.
I regretted forgetting them for our South Coast trip, particularly going over the ironbounds, but also on the sand and going up other hills.
They help you power up hills, distribute pack weight more evenly over all four limbs, give you more stability on downhills and uneven, unstable surfaces. They give me more confidence. The only problems i have ever had with them is when the track is very overgrown or on boardwalk if they suddenly get stuck in a gap, or when it is so steep or I want to grab rocks or shrubbery instead but can't because my hands are full.
The manufacturers recommend that you use two as your gait will be more even and I would generally agree with this, but when doing the Sodden Loddens I lent one to my sister and found I needed the other hand free anyway to help each other haul ourselves out of the mud ( we are short and the Loddens were flooded).
If you get really annoyed with them you can telescope them up and put them in the straps on the side of your pack quite easily, but I have found I carry them both in one hand occasionally or hand them up to my partner.
So, yes, they are fantastic for some of us.
I must admit until I had them I also thought they were only for the elderly, or the ponsy gear freak, but they actually are something I would rather have now, getting older myself.

[tsailml]

2 day to go, another mate coming so will have a buddy system of 2 for safety and to share the essential equipement. The boys want to keep things simple, so 3 meals a day will be FD food 21 packs to spread btw 4 of us. Advantages of FD foodis very safely packed in dry package to prevent curios animal, easy to prepare, but disadvantage is the same processed tastes even though there are four combinations, thai chicken curry, sweat and sour prok, etc and they take up alot of space; in fact most of my 60L is packed despite of a dry weight of only 16kg (not including 3 L bladder, and 1 L tequila). I will bring a hand line, andmade a spear (50mg head) to attach to my walking pole with rubber sling on the hand grip. My tent incoporating the 2 walking stick as support poles, hopefully will hold up in the gale force winds, otherwise will need to share the 2 man with my mate who like his space.
We fly into Hobart Sat morning then connect to Tas Air. Unsuccessfully tried to contact a friend to deliver fruits to airport, so hoepfully there sell some at the kiosk or the Gas station by the round about.
We will have a sat phone, a plbs and a GPS spot checking device for point to point navigation. Is theb est weather forecast line and tide info line still 62212000?
Schedule as follows and hope fully there is no difficulties in these section from last few days.
Day 1 cox bight
Day 2 Louisa river not creek ready to climb next day
Day3 Deadmans Bay
Day 4 Osmiridium not Prion beach, Osmiridium Campsite - the walk from there down the creek onto the Beach in the evening is magnificent
Day 5 Short Granite beach great camp site, magical spot if it’s a nice day
Day 6 Lions rock, start early as only 6 tent camp site
Day 7 2 hrs to cockle creek to catch bus or tag onto day 6.
Likely phone a taxi from Cockle creek so no time contraint, any idea on cost and who is best operator?

[ILUVSWTAS]

These guys.

Dover Taxico
Dover TAS 7117
ph: 0429 982 006

[Pteropus]

The descent was hard.... lots of mud, tree roots and trees you have to get over, under or around with a heavy pack. I used one walking pole, it was invaluable!

I also had my own SC track adventure last week (loved it!) and concur with the above posts that say one pole is best. I slipped on muddy tree roots several times with two poles, then one pole snapped when I slipped and put all my weight on it, somewhere after New River Lagoon. I found using one pole was best after this and had no more serious troubles with slipping as i did have a free hand.

Gaitors are a must, as one of my mates who didn’t use any discovered early on. The training I did for the past few months really helped too as the few of us who did a regular walk each week with a pack seemed to have no major dramas, while some of my friends who didn’t train regularly had a bit of a shock with carrying the weight for extended time. My pack was the heaviest though, at approximately 23 kg, which included 4 kg of camera equipment. I had no dramas at all carrying this and had a great time!

[AndyP]

Looking forward to hearing how the walk turned out for you.