Dumb questions / comments about bushwalking in Tasmania

[Kainas]

While on the Hollyford Track (Martins Bay Hut) we encountered a rather mad type. For those that don't know, the Hollyford is a lovely track in NZ in the same region as the more famous Routeburn and Milford tracks. This track is not a 'great walk' so is sparsely populate (we saw 5 people in the five days we were on the track). The track ends at Martins Bay Hut where the walker has several options
(1) Charter a plane to get picked up (our option),
(2) Walk back the way you came,
(3) Continue along the 'Pike Bay Route' a shorter return trip, but the track is barely visible and often disappears without a trace.

The guy we met started the track the night after us with only enough food for 5 days, and no way off the track. We got the impression he was hoping to be able to hitch a ride in our plane, which would have been okay had he been prepared to share the costs. Probably a bit pissy of us, but...

The guy flew along the track and arrived at Martin's Bay hut a full day ahead of us, I think he had 1 days food at this stage and decided to keep on going along the Pyke Bay route to the next hut. We went for a 500m walk along this track the next day, and it was nasty bushbashing. He had no map, no compass, no PLB, no food... so deciding he was up to the route he managed to flag down a surfer on a motor boat to get a lift back to Martin's Bay hut the next day.

So we are all in the hut together for a night (along with two Germans). At this stage the guy had no food, was 4 days from a road with no plans as to how to get out.... The few people in the hut chipped in a bit of food for him, but realistically given we were all a 4 day walk from the nearest road, nobody actually had any food to spare. My husband and I had 1 day worth of porridge rations in case the weather forced us to stay another day.

So he came into the hut that night and decided to dry out some damp wood by placing it all over the firebox...we returned from watching the sunset to a smoke-filled hut with logs starting to spark all over the place. I think 20minutes longer outside and we would not have had a hut to sleep in.

Perhaps we could have let him hitch a ride with us, perhaps we were a bit mean, but we actually planned our trip. We spent months researching everything (alot of it on this site!) and planning for contingencies, this guy with his lackadaisical attitude pissed us right off. We did hear (from a guy on another track who had run into him) he did manage to back-track the entire way, living off noodles etc that had been donated to him, but his stupidity (and sheer luck!) always makes me shake my head.

[stepbystep]

Sorry, can't resist, this is from WA.

I was windsurfing from Rotto to Cottesloe(17km), first and only big ocean crossing I did.

'The 'doctor' was in pushing me on my way and I had a back-up in the form of a chase boat full of buddies.
About 3km in we came across a guy paddling a surfboard with a 6-pack and 600ml water bottle strapped to his ankle. It was 2pm.
If he arrived on the mainland it would have been about 8pm by our reckoning.

The lads in the boat only picked him up on the proviso he donated his precious cargo, and we're not talking the water

He was exhausted, dehydrated & suffering from sun stroke but adamant he could make it

Broke all the rules, not bushwalking and not in Tas, sorry

[tasadam]

How about what the rangers get asked overseas? Good bit of comedy anyhow.

http://www.snopes.com/humor/question/rangers.asp

Grand Canyon National Park:

* Was this man-made?

* Do you light it up at night?

* I bought tickets for the elevator to the bottom — where is it?

* Is the mule train air conditioned?

* So where are the faces of the presidents?

Everglades National Park:

* Are the alligators real?

* Are the baby alligators for sale?

* Where are all the rides?

* What time does the two o'clock bus leave?

Denali National Park (Alaska):

* What time do you feed the bears?

* Can you show me where the yeti lives?

* How often do you mow the tundra?

* How much does Mount McKinley weigh?

Mesa Verde National Park:

* Did people build this, or did Indians?

* Why did they build the ruins so close to the road?

* Do you know of any undiscovered ruins?

* Why did the Indians decide to live in Colorado?

Carlsbad Caverns National Park:

* How much of the cave is underground?

* So what's in the unexplored part of the cave?

* Does it ever rain in here?

* How many ping-pong balls would it take to fill this up?

* So what is this — just a hole in the ground?

Yosemite National Park:

* Where are the cages for the animals?

* What time do you turn on Yosemite Falls?

Yellowstone National Park:

* Does Old Faithful erupt at night?

* How do you turn it on?

* When does the guy who turns it on get to sleep?

* We had no trouble finding the park entrances, but where are the exits?

[cixelsyd]

As a naturalised Australian from the LOTFATHOTB I was rather taken aback when telling my grandmother about moving to Australia, when she replied "Can you drive there from here?" My grandfather and I looked at each other both having a chuckle, but things fell to pieces when she asked "Do they have TV there?"

I guess its funnier if you could hear her southern accent. I love her to death.

[north-north-west]

Ahhh, at last. I've been looking for this thread ever since getting back. Please excuse me for the length of the following anecdote.
This is true. You really just COULDN'T make up something like this.

Walked in via Lake Myrtle track (losing beanie along the way), then peeled off at the shoulder and followed the cairns (while they lasted, which wasn't long) and then common sense, up to Rogoona. Nice little mountain. Heading down, almost back to the main track when I saw two twentyish walkers with daypacks heading towards me, looking a little uncertain. Being antisocial I would have dodged past them without comment but they bailed me up, and asked (in broad Yank accents) if I had followed the marked route all the way to the summit. I explained that there wasn't a marked route, just some cairns at the start and then it was line-of-sight or map-and-compass stuff. Whereupon they looked even more confused and said that they'd been following the paint marks up to that point but were having trouble picking up the next one.
'Paint marks? There aren't any paint marks. They don't use paint marks here.'
They insisted that there was paint marking the route, pointing back at a nearby splash of bright colour on a rock.

It took ten minutes to explain about orange lichens . . .

[ILUVSWTAS]

Oh jeepers really?? they could have ended up ANYWHERE....

[north-north-west]

Yeah, I'm surprised they got that far.

[tasadam]

A boulder field crossing would have made it interesting for them!

[tas-man]

Ahhh, at last. I've been looking for this thread ever since getting back. Please excuse me for the length of the following anecdote.
This is true. You really just COULDN'T make up something like this.

Walked in via Lake Myrtle track (losing beanie along the way), then peeled off at the shoulder and followed the cairns (while they lasted, which wasn't long) and then common sense, up to Rogoona. Nice little mountain. Heading down, almost back to the main track when I saw two twentyish walkers with daypacks heading towards me, looking a little uncertain. Being antisocial I would have dodged past them without comment but they bailed me up, and asked (in broad Yank accents) if I had followed the marked route all the way to the summit. I explained that there wasn't a marked route, just some cairns at the start and then it was line-of-sight or map-and-compass stuff. Whereupon they looked even more confused and said that they'd been following the paint marks up to that point but were having trouble picking up the next one.
'Paint marks? There aren't any paint marks. They don't use paint marks here.'
They insisted that there was paint marking the route, pointing back at a nearby splash of bright colour on a rock.

It took ten minutes to explain about orange lichens . . .

Your story reminded me of another similar true story recorded in Bernard O'Reilly's "Green Mountains and Cullabenbong" where one of the O'Reilly young girls got lost in what is now Lamington NP, and miraculously found her way home, in the moonlight, by following the "white marks on the rocks" - rainforest lichens!

[MichaelP]

Bumped into a Canadian guy at Maria Island who was circumnavigating the state in a sea kayak. He'd only brought a set of singlets and a raincoat. No thermals, no jumper, no polar fleece, no beanie. Absolutely no warm weather gear. And he was planning to kayak down the West Coast. I gave him a few sets of thermals, told him he was nuts, explained what the ocean in the south-west is like, and told him to stop at St. Helens or somewhere on the West Coast and talk to someone in a PWS office.

Three weeks later in the paper I saw an article about him capsizing on the West Coast and being rescued by a group of fishermen. Crazy guy. At least he was okay though.