Gettin' About with Ray n Pauline: Mountain Hikes

Julie and Jon

This is my good friend Jon and his wife Julie.
They currently live in Tasmania.
Jon is originally from England, but now considers himself as an Aussie. At an early age he realized that he didn't want to live in the UK, so when he finished his education (Manual Arts degree), he packed his kit and went off to explore the world. In 1988 he settled in Bunbury, Western Australia and later in 1994 we met each other.
Since then we have become very close buds and mountain hiking has been our largest common interest. It was Jon who introduced me to it and I thank him for it.
Jon met Julie on the south coast of New South Wales, Australia while visiting a relative. The story of how they met was quite fascinating.
Unfortunately, their story had a sad turn when Jon was diagnosed with Rheumatoid Arthritis and went from a very fit 83kgs to a sickly 59kgs in what seemed to happen overnight. He was told by his doctor that at the rate in which his body was deteriorating, he wouldn't last any more than three months.
After three years of enduring his crippling disease, he was given the opportunity of trying an experimental drug which worked for him. Within several months he was back up to nearly 80kgs. He still takes the drug which is administered intravenously and he's back to the way he was before he took ill. Let me just say that the drug was only part of the panacea. Jon's mental attitude provided the tenacity for him to overcome the disease as well.
Jon was still ill when we attempted to climb Bluff Knoll (Stirling Ranges) which is just over 1000 metres high. Although it took a considerable amount of time, he reached the summit which served as the impetus for him to resurrect his hiking hobby. Consequently, it was the start of mine.
Julie has been on most of our walks and fortunately acts as Jon's conscience. Jon can be tempted to take risks on our walks and if it wasn't for Julie he would find himself in all sorts of trouble at times.

Routeburn Track - South Island

The routeburn track is noted by Sir Edmund Hillary as being one of the best walks in the world.
We set out at about 8:00am from the Glenorchy end for a day walk. Which meant that we had to judge a good time to turn around and head back before dark set in.
The track starts out by winding along the Routeburn River. Although the walk feels as though it's undulating, you are actually ascending all the way. Suspension bridges are used to cross the river at certain points. The water in the river is crystal clear and it looks spectacular as it cuts it's way through the tight valley.
After a couple of hours of walking, the river opens out into a large area (Routeburn Flats) at the foot of the surrounding peaks. At this point, you come across the first of the DOC cabins. We stopped for a while and had a bite to eat.

Routeburn Flats

From the first DOC cabin to the next it's about one and a half hours walking time. This section is the steepest part of the track, where you go from about 500 metres to about 1500 metres.
Once we reached the second cabin we stopped for another bite to eat. The view from the cabin is spectacular. It's surrounded by the higher, snow capped peaks and looks down onto the Routeburn Flats and the valley that we had previously walked through.
It was about 1:00pm when we left the second cabin. The track levelled out as it spanned across another flat area, which was the start of the alpine conditions. It was clearly obvious that this area is well covered in snow during the colder months.

Alpine section

As we got to the base of the snowy peaks we noticed that the rest of the flat area was a large frozen lake (Lake Harris). We stopped again to marvel at the lake and fill our water bottles. There was a small snow field to walk across to get to the lake. This was my first ever, experience with snow.

Lake Harris

We had to keep moving because of time. At this point it was a reasonably steep climb through some snow to get to the Harris Saddle. Julie stayed at the base near the lake, as the snow wasn't very hard and the drop off to one side wasn't very forgiving.

To Harris Saddle

Once we got to Harris Saddle we turned around and started out for the Glenorchy end. By this time it was about 2:30pm. It meant that we had to high tail it, to get back to the car before dark. We managed to make it back just on dark.
It was the best hike I've ever done. But next time I want to do the whole track. It means that I've got to get better equipped for overnight stays on the track. After our 9 hour walk, we made our way to a small hotel in Glenorchy which made a fantastic Sunday roast.

Stirling Ranges
For several years Jon, Julie and myself would frequent the Stirling Ranges in the south west of Western Australia on weekends and climb a peak.
Jon and Julie eventually moved to Tasmania and I continued to frequent the Stirlings with Pauline.