That Mad Belgian

[mikeb]

Always ambitious, he has flagged Lion Rock as an alternate objective for today...

[north-north-west]

Normally Osmiridium - South Cape Rivulet is an easy enough day. There is at least one alternative campsite between the rivulet and Lion Rock, so as long as he takes water no reason not to push on if there's enough light and he feels up to it.

[MrWalker]

Normally Osmiridium - South Cape Rivulet is an easy enough day. There is at least one alternative campsite between the rivulet and Lion Rock, so as long as he takes water no reason not to push on if there's enough light and he feels up to it.

There is no possibility that he will arrive at South Cape Rivulet before dark.
Not that that will stop him from pushing on anyway, but he needs to plan for a 6am start on Monday.

[MrWalker]

When he arrives, we might want to keep him away from anyone related to the tourism industry. Unless the plan is to discourage everyone from ever going into the areas he has been through.
The following is a summary of his comments at the end of each day, with technical details removed. The only good day he had was on Cradle Mt.

4 Aug. Road boring. it's too dark and dangerous
5 Aug. Ups and downs. Hard work. Clothes don't dry.
6 Aug. Such a hard climb! Leeches everywhere. So many logs to go over or crawl under.
7 Aug. Dried blood in sleeping bag. Found the culprit: big leech! Nature is great.
8 Aug. Put bandages on my feet. Useless after descent and wading in a creek up to the knees. I hate tarmac.
9 Aug. No more trek with such load and steep slopes in the dark. This PCT is not easy.
10 Aug. Another slow and dangerous day following the Leven river upstream. Moved 40 fallen trees.
11 Aug.1 blister on my left foot doing more work.
12 Aug. So wet. Need sun.
13 Aug. How slow I am.
14 Aug. Fell a few times. Calves and knees swollen.
15 Aug. Drizzle and rain all day. My pants got soaked. Shoes and socks too.
16 Aug. Rain, sun, hail, snow. 2 feet wet and frozen.
17 Aug. Fog, zero sun. Rain now. Wind. All is wet.
18 Aug. All day the same: buttongrass, snow, mudpools. I dream of a dry and hot place.
19 Aug. Sleeping mat has a leak. Broke 1 trekking pole. 20 cm snow last night.
20 Aug. So close to end leg 1 but with deep snow, mud and slush I didn't reach Cradle Valley.
21 Aug. Non stop wind & rain last night. Most of the snow now replaced by slush.
22 Aug. Best weather since june. Summited Cradle Mt: best view ever!
23 Aug. Fell by slipping on a boardwalk under the snow.
24 Aug. Started late, finished late.
25 Aug. Left hand swollen for 2 days now. No pain, can move. Pack doesn’t hurt anymore.
26 Aug. Dry weather, then came the rain, then snow... Now drenched once again.
27 Aug. 20 cm of snow in the morning. Catching packs of it when I walk underneath the branches
28 Aug. Started paddling at 12. Had to stop for a log, could've walked around it but decided to give it a go. Raft got stuck half under water. Could've lost it all. Could've died, even. Lost camera, mic, headlight, water containers, stuff to inflate raft. Small hole in hull and 10 cm tear in floor.
29 Aug. Repaired boat. Paddled entire Lake King William in dusk, dark, then under moonlight.
30 Aug. My brain clearly not at 100%. Started offtrack bushbashing. Going in circles at Night. Hard.
31 Aug. Bushbashing in tea tree, acacia (?) and a thick wall of cutting grass. 250m in 2h. Fallen trees
1 Sept. Branch in eye. Cannot see well. Hope it's not permanent >:-(
2 Sept. Hard to find motivation. Rain, leeches, high scrub or forest for which my backpack is too high and wide.
3 Sept. Pointless day in the forest. Hard but now back in scrub/buttongrass.
4 Sept. Dried tent, sleeping bag
5 Sept. My legs are so skinny, almost no power. Still some belly fat left, though. Had a nice 2m roll, fell on my head, back, legs, but all ok.
6 Sept. So cold! Had water inside dry suit, fixed a tiny hole below knee. Now hard rain.
7 Sept. Each day harder to find a decent camping spot
8 Sept. Broke 2nd trekking pole by 4pm. Cried for 2min. Can't just stop, I chose to be here. Fell more.
9 Sept. So slow & weak. I feel I'm older than TAS expedition 2006.
10 Sept. Cliffs all around. Stuck, got out after 80°climb. One mistake meant dead. Now safe. This is hell.
11 Sept. Woke up with pain & issue in my right eye. ... No more supper food. 3 breakfast rations left.
12 Sept. Heavy rain & wind all night, Wanted to SOS but pushed to island
13 Sept. Dodging trees on flat water until Pedder river. Class 3 rapids, so the only way up was on land. Food 4.7kg
14 Sept. Paddled against the wind, slow.
15 Sept. Crashing waves made me capsize passing the tip of the peninsula. Fun! Relaunched and paddled. Later on the wind was too strong, with 2m waves. Had to stop on island. Now, please, Tasmania, send Margot Robbie with pizza & beer.
16 Sept. Almost no sleep because of wet sleeping bag, burnt it a bit while drying it with stove. Other holes in airmat.
17 Sept. looked for a bag of food…mmm. 2.7kg left, will have to last 5-8 days!
18 Sept. I completely underestimated the distance compared to what the notes of my map say. 1 gaiter dead. Tried to repair the airmat again til 4am, but it's still leaking. Backpain. Starting rationing tomorrow.
19 Sept. Boring rainy morning on Port Davey Track till Spring River.
20 Sept. Very cold night at Melaleuca. Hunger, back hurts and worst wet socks ever. Pain like sandpaper.
21 Sept. Up Ironbound, wind at the summit so strong, threw me to the ground. Feet hurt, rash. Need rest! Drysuit wet inside.
22 Sept. Lost the track then light battery died. Bushbashing in the dark to reach previous point. Fell in a pool with mud above the knees.

[NickMonk]

Well he'd be having a miserable day. Weather is atrocious in the Huon Valley at the moment, freezing with hail. The south coast will only be worse by a factor of 2 or 3. Hope he can get to SCR with some light. Going through the forest in the dark without a headtorch......no thanks.

[stepbystep]

Nice day for climbing the South Cape Range. It's protected and cool helps with the climb. New track work will be marvellous for him. He's going great guns today.

[Warin]

Always ambitious, he has flagged Lion Rock as an alternate objective for today...

I think he just marked all the camp sites along the way .. probably so they stand out better on his map.
Which one he chooses to stop at?

~8 pm for Rivulet. That is a fair day.
Lion would be another 2 hours. If he wants to continue in the dark?

[Mark F]

Looks like about 8pm at South Coast RIvulet - hope its not too high.

I just did a quick back of envelope calculation on his travels along the sct comparing his times to the npws estimates. It looks like his nighttime walking has cost him about 9 hours over the npws times. His daylight walking sections have matched or bettered the npws estimates but once night falls the rate of progress, not unexpectedly, drops dramatically and getting mislaid on the way to Osmiridium didn't help. I am not wanting to criticise and I am in awe of what he has accomplished but a little more thought about stopping around nightfall and getting an early start the next morning may well have had him sipping his first beer as I post.

[jmac]

Looks like about 8pm at South Coast RIvulet - hope its not too high.

I just did a quick back of envelope calculation on his travels along the sct comparing his times to the npws estimates. It looks like his nighttime walking has cost him about 9 hours over the npws times. His daylight walking sections have matched or bettered the npws estimates but once night falls the rate of progress, not unexpectedly, drops dramatically and getting mislaid on the way to Osmiridium didn't help. I am not wanting to criticise and I am in awe of what he has accomplished but a little more thought about stopping around nightfall and getting an early start the next morning may well have had him sipping his first beer as I post.

I just don’t think he’s been able to break through the fatigue and change his body clock. The cognitive testing hasn’t helped; as he seems to need to do it in the morning.

[NickMonk]

Looks like he's finished for the day. No light makes that a good decision.

[Warin]

Looks like he's finished for the day.

Nup ... and it looks like a 10 pm finish for Rivulet... may be later.

[GPSGuided]

The cognitive testing hasn’t helped; as he seems to need to do it in the morning.

Are you suggesting the cognitive testing is draining his cognitive functions during the walk or he is so glycogen depleted that his cognitive functioning has deteriorated? Some drive he has and the proximity to the finish must be giving him a boost.

[MrWalker]

The cognitive testing hasn’t helped; as he seems to need to do it in the morning.

Are you suggesting the cognitive testing is draining his cognitive functions during the walk or he is so glycogen depleted that his cognitive functioning has deteriorated? Some drive he has and the proximity to the finish must be giving him a boost.

I think the problem is that the tests are required before he heads off in the morning. But although they should only take 45 min, he is generally about 2 hrs later heading off on the days that he does the tests. This uses up 2 hrs of daylight every third day. If he did them in the evening, at the end of an exhausting day, they might be more valid and would not take up walking time in daylight.

We should suggest that he does another test when he arrives at Cockle Creek, before he is allowed to eat. That would be a good stress test.

[NickMonk]

Looks like he's finished for the day.

Nup ... and it looks like a 10 pm finish for Rivulet... may be later.

Damn, that's twice I've done that now. There was no update on the marker for quite some time. Moon is strong but plenty of cloud down south.

[bernieq]

The marker updates have been patchy for most of the day (and particularly in the last few hours) - an in-reach / satellite coverage issue?

[Mountain Rocket]

He's gotta be nearly in camp now, another solid effort. Striking distance for tomorrow for sure!

[jmac]

He’s messaged; trying to figure out what to do; whether to push closer to SC than those rocky slabs above Lion Rock; how long to allow for the walk out. I’ve responded with a suggestion that he stop at SCR, walk out by lunch tomorrow, photograph the cape from those rocky slabs. Great crew waiting to support him at CC.

[MrWalker]

The marker updates have been patchy for most of the day (and particularly in the last few hours) - an in-reach / satellite coverage issue?

It's been patchy when he's under trees. Along there the aerial view does not show the track at all in most places, indicating fairly thick tree cover. The InReach just waits until it can see its satellites, then updates all the backlog of points. It is possible that a low battery might have a weaker signal, so it may be worse than usual right now.

[NickMonk]

OK so I'm here at Cockle Creek to meet him tomorrow. Have a change of new clothes, and all the food he wanted, including bananas, chocolate, Tim Tams ("cookies") hydralyte, coke, cheese, nuts etc. Weird but that's what he's after.
Still not sure if the ABC will be able to send a crew down or not, they'll be getting in touch with me in the morning. I'll be walking a little way down the track to get some footage and stills as he approaches. Will be giving the footage to the ABC if they can't make it.
Have been keeping in regular touch with JMac, Norbert (his support back home), and LouPhi (through Norbert and JMac) to make sure he gets what he needs. Will be transporting him through to Hobart once he's fed and cleaned up a bit.
Make no mistake, this is an incredible feat of human endurance!

[Overlandman]

Make no mistake, this is an incredible feat of human endurance!

+1

Hope it all goes well tomorrow, there are a large number of us here on the forum that feel the sameway about how incredible this adventure has panned out, keep us posted.

Some Belgian waffles may be a welcomed treat as well.
Regards OLM

[wildwanderer]

OK so I'm here at Cockle Creek to meet him tomorrow. Have a change of new clothes, and all the food he wanted, including bananas, chocolate, Tim Tams ("cookies") hydralyte, coke, cheese, nuts etc. Weird but that's what he's after.
Still not sure if the ABC will be able to send a crew down or not, they'll be getting in touch with me in the morning. I'll be walking a little way down the track to get some footage and stills as he approaches. Will be giving the footage to the ABC if they can't make it.
Have been keeping in regular touch with JMac, Norbert (his support back home), and LouPhi (through Norbert and JMac) to make sure he gets what he needs. Will be transporting him through to Hobart once he's fed and cleaned up a bit.
Make no mistake, this is an incredible feat of human endurance!

Great stuff Nick. Don't forget the soap and a wash bucket. And hazardous waste bag for the clothes!

And let him know he has 10s if not 100s of people on this forum wishing him well and extending their congratulations on such an heroic feat of determination and endurance!

[tastrax]

I should be there by about 9:30am with keys to the Rangers quarters, soap and shampoo, plus some Belgian chocolate! He might appreciate a shower before his trip to Hobart

[Warin]

OK so I'm here at Cockle Creek to meet him tomorrow.

Excellent!
He wanted a weighting machine? Possibly to get his body weight (before feeding?) and that of his gear.

And yes .. a waste bag would be good

[NickMonk]

OK so I'm here at Cockle Creek to meet him tomorrow.

Excellent!
He wanted a weighting machine? Possibly to get his body weight (before feeding?) and that of his gear.

And yes .. a waste bag would be good

I have bathroom scales, kitchen scales, and luggage scales ready to go

Plus garbage bags.

[NickMonk]

I should be there by about 9:30am with keys to the Rangers quarters, soap and shampoo, plus some Belgian chocolate! He might appreciate a shower before his trip to Hobart

That's terrific Phil, glad you can get down. I might be along the track a bit by then. I also have soap, toothbrush and paste, and deodorant for him. And a towel. Didn't bring shampoo though so that's awesome.

[NickMonk]

Also, I'll appreciate him having a shower before he gets in the car for the drive back LOL

[NickMonk]

And let him know he has 10s if not 100s of people on this forum wishing him well and extending their congratulations on such an heroic feat of determination and endurance!

Will definitely be passing on everyone's admiration and good wishes.

[jmac]

Thanks Nick and Phil for outing yourselves as the welcoming team, and for scrubbing LouPhi up before he returns to the city.

Please remind me though; which one of you is bringing Margot?

J.

[NickMonk]

Please remind me though; which one of you is bringing Margot?

J.

Ah damn, I knew I'd forgotten something!

[davidn3875]

Sending you all the most positives vibes to pass onto L - P . I am in awe of his achievement.