This is my first post
", "author": { "name": "Casey Webb" }, "tags": [ ], "date_published": "2026-06-12T20:16:05+10:00", "date_modified": "2026-06-12T20:16:05+10:00" }, { "id": "https://blog.spiderwebb.net/this-is-a-test-im-testing-my-new-blog.html", "url": "https://blog.spiderwebb.net/this-is-a-test-im-testing-my-new-blog.html", "title": "Tassie Traverse: The Beginning Of the End", "summary": "It's been a while since my last trip update, so if any of you are wondering if Lauren and I died on a mountain somewhere, we did not! For those of you who don't know we embarked on a epic adventure with one goal -…", "content_html": "\n\n It's been a while since my last trip update, so if any of you are wondering if Lauren and I died on a mountain somewhere, we did not!\n
\n\n\n For those of you who don't know we embarked on a epic adventure with one goal - walk from Penguin on the north coast of Tasmania to Cockle creek the southernmost point on the Tasmanian mainland.\n
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\n The first section is called the Penguin-Cradle trail or PCT, and runs from Penguin to Cradle mountain along the Dial range, Guns Plains,and Leven canyon before climbing up onto the Black Bluff Range for some alpine walking to finish. \n
\n\n\n The PCT is a fantastic trail with everything you could want in 5-6 day walk. It is well marked, well maintained with dry open forest, lot's of mountains and climbing, rainforest walking by the Leven river, the spectacular Leven canyon, and then the stunning alpine section of the Black Bluff Range that takes in to cradle mountain. We also had decent enough weather, although we did hit our first challenge at Paddy's lake with insane winds, snow, sleet and a lake that looked more like the Bass Strait when the roaring 40s has done too much cocaine. This sent us packing back down the range for the night but we made the time back with a 10hr following day.\n
Unfortunately this turned out to be the theme of our whole trip that would send us home early.\n
We arrived at Cradle, grabbed our food from Mum - Leanne Webb - had a bite to eat and headed off. Given the long previous day, and the heavy packs with the next 7 days of food, the going was really slow and it was a hard walk into Scott Kilvert memorial hut. \n
For those who don’t know, the walk from Dove lake or Ronny Creek in to Scott Kilvert Memorial Hut is in my opion the single best overnight hike in tasmania. We watched the sun set on the top of Hansons Peak and made the last hour to the hut in semi darkness.\n
The next 6 days were some of the toughest I’ve experienced while hiking. Long story short, we’d brought pre-cooked vegan chicken Schnitzels for the first two days lunch and they did not agree with our stomachs. We were horribly sick for several days, with fatigue, stomach pain, sleeping issues, and for me, severe constipation and diarrhoea that did not resolve for the entirety of this section. When we made it to Lake sinclair Lodge 7 days later we stayed 2 nights because at least we had shower, laundry and for me a toilet and opportunity to stop shitting myself.\n
Mum, legend she is, drove an hour on Monday to Queenstown and an hour back to get me some Movical, while we hiked up and over Mount Rufus, a test to see if we had the energy - and bowel control - to keep walking. Rufus is a great hike. Unfortunately despite the lovely mostly sunny day, the summit was freezing cold, windy and in complete whiteout. we had lunch in the Gingerbread hut, and continued down. Pleasantly surprised by our energy levels we were happy with our day despite me still digging six holes while walking.\n
We arrived at the base of the King William range at around dusk where Mum had her van set up, movicol for me and some freshly cooking Naan breads on the stove.\n
This was supposed to be the start of the off-track section. The next ten days would be spent traversing the King william range, the old airstrips, Battelement hills, the Denison range, and stepped hills down to the shores of Lake Gordon.\n
So we sorted our gear, chugged the movicol and headed to bed, hoping the following day would provide adequate weather, and controlled bowels.\n
Up the next morning which was day 16 now, we packed early and headed off. The climb up King william 1 was gruelling, and by the time we were near the top were back in freezing cold wind, rain, and whiteout. We did make good time though, and the weather improved giving us glimpses of the spectacular views around us as we walked along the range. The intention was to camp on the range and descend the scrubby gap the following morning but unfortunately the wind picked up and things got a little scary so we made the tough decision to pack up and with only an hour of light left, head off down the steep scrub slope searching for a protected spot to pitch the tent - only pausing briefly to admire the stunning golden hilside of the fagus in full colour - a very brief departure from the stress we were under.\n
We were lucky and found a nice spot in a saddle just off the range with space for the tent, though we were scratched up, tired and fed up with no views, hard decisions, and bad weather.\n
The next morning we continued down the range making good time, and reaching guelph basin by 11am where we were orginally supposed to be spending the night. However once again we were faced with a tough decision. The following two nights were supposed to be spent camping on top of the southern half of King william range, and the weather was predicting 70 and 80kmh winds respectively. tonight was to be calm though and it was only 11am. We could a) head up the range today, hoping it wasn’t too hard going, camp the night on top and then tomorrow push hard and make it to the end and hope there was somewhere sheltered just below the range at the start of the descent, b) camp the night where we were beside the lake for probably three nights, to wait out the weather, setting us back significantly, or c) skip the southern section of King william range and walk along the valley, which would actually be a little faster, but has some of the worst scrub we’d walked through in Tasmania. We decided to push and head up the range so we picked a spot to head up to Slatter’s peak and headed off. \n
And were immediately trying to push our way through near impenetrable scrub. After 15-20 minutes we turned back, deciding to try further up the valley, which was supposedly an easier, though less direct ascent route. \n
By this time I had spent several hours, (days if I will ever admit it to myself) with growing doubts and arguments in my head about how much stress we were feeling and how little enjoyment we had experienced, constantly pushing away the question that was starting to eat at my mind. \n
“Why are we doing this again?”.\n
By the time we were heading up the valley, it was about 12pm, daylight was becoming a concern, we hadn’t yet eaten lunch and I couldn’t stop the doubt in my head any longer. So we stopped, had lunch in the beautiful warm sunshine of one of the best weather days of the trip, had the difficult conversation, and made the call to pull the plug on our adventure and head home.\n
Of course, this was easier said than done, as we were a day from the Lyell Highway, and were going to have to bash our way through the previously mentioned worst scrub we’ve ever encountered to retrieve our food stash before we could exit. We also needed to contact mum to let her know, and she would paddle across the lake with our boat to provide us with our exit transport.\n
Since getting back home, it has been hard for me to grapple with our decision, and despite being very happy to be home, have warm showers, clean clothes, and a comfortable bed, I still am finding it hard to accept we didn’t finish it.\n
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", "author": { "name": "Casey Webb" }, "tags": [ ], "date_published": "2026-06-10T20:51:24+10:00", "date_modified": "2026-06-12T20:15:26+10:00" } ] }