Tue 1st December 2009, Freycinet Peninsula

I’m sitting on a beach somewhere on the Freycinet peninsula eating breakfast with a spork No, it isn’t a porky stork sitting next to me. It’s an eating implement made out of tough nylon. It has a spoon one end and a fork the other. The fork has a serrated edge for cutting. I suppose they couldn’t fit knife in the descriptive name somewhere.

I got here late afternoon, set up camp, and then thought I’d see if I could get to the top of Mt Amos and back before night. I was advised against doing this by the caring ranger back at the parks building. She said it is wet, and you might slip. I immediately thought that she is used to dealing with denizens of concrete jungles from around the world who only see trees in pictures.

I soon understood her warning. To get to the top of Mt Amos you have to traverse, or climb straight up, great slabs of rock. There is pinkish rock and dark rock. The pinkisk rock is worn from running water. This is the slippery stuff when wet. And the angle is steep, even on dry rock I was on all fours at time looking for holds.

I got to the top at about quarter past seven. i took some photos of sunlight shining through a hole in the clouds to spotlight the sea in the distance.

There are water restrictions on Freycinet. An effective way to save water is to have no hot water – cold showers . I had a very quick shower, then went to my tent to eat and read. With my head near the wall of the tent something from outside the tent was pushing against my ear and sniffing. It could smell the bananas. I asked what it was up to, and it wandered off. I think it was a wallaby; wombats, from experience, are more persistent.

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