A short, lazy day, we made our way south from New Norfolk to a campsite generously provided to us by the Tasmanian Trail’s Derwent Valley Coordinator.
With a very short day today (less than 10 km), CareFree and I were in no rush to leave New Norfolk. We tried to ask for a late checkout, since we forgot to do that last night, but it was too late for that. Apparently, there was only one room to clean (ours), and the cleaning crew was already on-site and couldn’t wait around for us. So we were out of our room at 10 am, and left shortly later, heading south out of town.
After Devonport, New Norfolk is the largest town we’ve been in so far in Tasmania. While that was pretty clear yesterday when we walked past multiple gas stations just on the way to our motel, now that we’ve walked the full length of town, there’s no question.
Once out of New Norfolk proper, we headed south along Lachlan Road, first on a nice but brief dirt path above the road, and then along the road itself, which had narrow shoulders on both sides. The road also turned out to be quite busy. While it didn’t feel manifestly dangerous, this was definitely the most sketchy road we’ve walked on, and definitely one of the longer ones.
Unlike yesterday, we didn’t really get much in the way of views as we headed out of town. We gradually climbed as we got further from town, but didn’t get high enough relative to the terrain to see much of anything, apart from glimpses of the nearby farms.
With plenty of time to kill, we stopped for two breaks. The first was in a shaded grassy expanse between the road and someone’s fence. Only about a kilometer and a half later, we reached the Lachlan Community Park. The park had two covered picnic areas with barbecue grills, and also a playground and toilets (though unfortunately, the toilets were locked). The whole construction of the park appeared to be relatively new.
About five minutes further south past the park, we turned off Lachlan Road, onto a smaller dirt road with much less traffic. This wound us around a few more farms, until we reached a cherry orchard belonging to Anita and Garth, the Tasmanian Trail’s Derwent Valley Coordinators.
As instructed, we let ourselves into a paddock next to the road, where a small sun shelter stood next to a field. After a few minutes, we had a chat with Garth (and his two dogs), who showed us where the water and toilet was. An hour later, Anita arrived, and we had a brief discussion about the trail. Apparently, they have plans to provide a larger shelter with a water tank and toilet for hikers later, if the local council provides funds for it. This would certainly be a boon for future hikers; the 41 kilometers between New Norfolk and the next camping opportunity is rather long for hikers, especially with tomorrow’s elevation gain.
We had a pretty relaxed afternoon. Clouds rolled through, eventually exposing the spot we’d sat down at to the sun. Later, the clouds returned, and it got cool when a bit of a breeze picked up.
We cooked dinner, then retreated to our tent as rain began to start. Over the next few hours, it rained off and on. At least for now, our tent is staying dry under the shelter, but as it cools overnight, I expect we’ll have a somewhat humid evening and wet tent we’ll have to pack tomorrow morning.
Tomorrow will be an early day, as we have a 30 km walk to Judbury with almost 900 meters of elevation gain (and loss) over the mountains between here and there.