Mission WTL: Walking the Loop…

Years ago, I saw a map of Southwest Tasmania lying on the dining room table and a few things caught my eye. Several walks appeared to connect and almost formed a loop in the wilderness. Could one walk a complete circuit? A few conversations and the perusal of some walking guides suggested this to be a distinct possibility.

Initial estimates put it well over a month and a half, requiring  a minimum of three supply drops and some seriously light-weight gear. A revised version cut down the time by a week but required the inclusion of one-man lightweight rafts and depended on predicting rainfall a full month in advance. A few more revisions and a new plan, not quite completing the loop but getting very close and avoiding such terrain as 7km of dense scrub taking 14 days, brought this down to four weeks, two supply drops and some moderately light-weight gear. We were now leaving the realms of fantasy for those of possibility.

By the time I finally had a workable plan formulated, I was also leaving the free summers of University behind. Compulsory work experience and an inconveniently timed attack of the neurosurgeons used up those last two summers before fulltime work made a four-week walk infeasible. Alas, another dream was assigned the code of “someday” which scheduled it somewhere in the timeline of never.

Fast-forward a few years to life’s circumstances opening the latter half of a November and all of the following December up as potential free-time.

Within half an hour of the possibility of free time arising, I had unearthed my old maps, dug out the track notes and set about planning. Yes, the challenge of spare time now had a solution, but there were still a few hurdles to be overcome:

• The crew of interested walkers I first gathered had since gained fulltime commitments of their own. I had to find new recruits able to drop off the grid for a month. Requirements: free time; walking experience; insane enough to agree; and most of all, a group that gets along well enough that we wouldn’t be at each others’ throats by month’s end.
• My own preparedness. Two years polishing an office chair with my rear-end 8:30-5pm meant I was not physically ready for four weeks carrying a heavy pack through rugged terrain. Worse still, I was out of practice in living out of a pack, navigating and planning trips.

While I started scoping out potential recruits, I also had to start preparing myself.

Why am I writing this instead of getting out and preparing? Motivation. Every time I have to write a post saying that I’ve done no further preparation, I want as many people as possible to take note and guilt me into doing more. Besides, if it works I want to have a written record.