Leealuweena - sleeping water

Following our usual rhythm of “activity-drive-activity“, we reached Lake St. Claire National Park yesterday late afternoon. It's the southern end of the Overland track and seems to be fairly popular for both long and short walks. A ferry would even take you to the northern end of the lake, allowing you to walk the last stretch of the famous track. On the way to the park, a short patch of reception enabled us to receive good friends' advice on what to do there. We checked with the visitor center about the weather for the next day and the lady -after trying to find out if we're fit enough according to our hiking history (we were :))- confirmed our friends' suggestion. While the Overland track in combination with the ferry seemed to be more popular, there were also two mountain tracks, offering different terrain and great views from the top. A quick question at the lodge confirmed our choice: the ferry ride would have cost $50pp, one way! That's more than the return fare for Maria Island! We chose to use our legs instead and hike up Mt. Rufus, a 18.5km circuit of 8h. Motivated by the prospect of a hot shower (they only operate till 4pm), we did it in 6h. The ice cold wind on the ridge to reach the summit, that spoiled the views just a little bit, might have made us walk faster, too.
Since my sister has left, our walks have a different aim anyways. Where before it was more like "oh look, there is a butterfly" and endless pictures to capture the surroundings, it is now all about work out and increasing our fitness levels. I do sneak in the occasional picture still though.
Clean and rejuvenated by the hot showers (the facilities were great!), we rewarded ourselves with a meal in the lodge, returned to our campspot next to Lake King William (no idea where the lake is, it seems more like a river to me) and made pineapple cobbler (a sort of cake in a camp oven) over a campfire, thoroyghly enjoying the newly lifted fire ban. Life could be worse.Read more