'You know there's like 800 stairs, right?' he asks, worrying that I don't have it in me to walk to Cape Huay, one section of the famous Three Capes walk on the Tasman Peninsula, Australia. I do know it's a hard and long walk, but I want a challenge, and I have heard how stunning it is.
The thing is, no one knows just how hard 800 stairs are until one does them. Later, we will find it's a lot more than that - one estimate is 4500 steps. Yep. Feel the BURN.
The first part of the track is stunning, full of so many different plants - grasses, grevelliea, banksia, pine, gums. It's alive with birds and often rustles with the hope of spying a wombat or any number of marsupials living in Tassie, though you have more hope of seeing them at night.
After an hour, the track starts to descend to the cape. This is the point of no return and the dreaded knowledge that every step you take down, you know you have to take up. We pass people that look like they are nearly dying, breathless with the effort of the ascent, but already the views are so stunning it's impossible not to continue.
We meet a trail guide who tells us some 18,000 helicopter trips to drop materials were needed to make the tracks here. It's mind boggling. It cost about 150 million and draws thousands upon thousands every year. It doesn't appear TOO busy though, and it's nice to share the experience with others anyway who huff and gasp along with us.
I can't begin to explain how incredible the views were. It was a perfect day as well - barely a breath of wind, and perfect sunshine. We were sweating, but it wasn't terrible heat. I did envy those who got up at dawn to do it though - the light would have been amazing. It's a four hour return walk but we know someone who ran it in two. In the end, it took usfour and a half, with many breather stops.
Can you see the needle like rock stack in the image above? It's called the Totem Pole and people actually climb it. There were climbers on the rockface below that had arrived by boat. I had read a book by a climber called Paul Pritchard who, in the 1970s, was hit by a falling rock as he climbed the pole. He wasn't wearing a helmet and his girlfriend had to somehow pull him to a ledge, brain fluid seeping out of his head, secure him and run through the scrub for help. No mobile phones or well paved track then. He become paraplegic and soebt years recovering, only to come and climb the pole many years later.
At this point Jamie's feeling ill - he suffers vertigo and hates heights. In fact he won't see the Totem Pole as you have to walk to the edge of a rock and hang out over the railing to see it. The track at the end is very narrow and you have to see it to believe it.
After that, the long ascent. I had to stop often and felt dizzy, queasy and wobbly. I'm fairly fit but it was hard on every one. Jamie kept wanting to take my pack for me but I refused. I wanted to do it even if it was a slow, slow struggle and people were passing us. Needless to say I made it. The last hour was easier, although I knew my calves and shins would feel it the next day!
At the end we had a dip in the stunning waters of Fortescue Bay. Tassie water is some of the cleanest and clearest in the world, but boy it's getting colder as April moves on. Still, it was good to wash the sweat off and numb the pain in our legs.
Would we walk it again? No freaking way. Three days on my legs are still killing me and I've had to take pain killers just to sleep.
But it was worth every step, and by far one of the most stunning walks I've done in all my days.