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--- 194601 [2016/04/21 11:02] – tyreless
+++ 194601 [2016/04/21 13:24] (current) – tyreless
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 Australia is scarcely a land of tall mountains and jungle forests. Right at our back door the rolling plains run out towards the Darling. Very soon the tall gums give way to stunted mallee, or deep grey-green of cypress pine, the scraggy, bushy "currant bush" or mulga looking like a birch broom in a fit.
-It was dark, very dark when the Silver City Comet coughed into Broken Hill's disreputable railway station. When morning came, after a brief rest snatched in the famous Sturt Park, a new world was before us. This is a trtly remarkable city for such absolute isolation.
+It was dark, very dark when the Silver City Comet coughed into Broken Hill's disreputable railway station. When morning came, after a brief rest snatched in the famous Sturt Park, a new world was before us. This is a truly remarkable city for such absolute isolation.
-Imagine our oomplete sense of loss when we came to erect our tent - not a tent pole for miles, not a tree, not an inch of wood for fire - if only Marie Byles were here. Yet this city of the West holds many secrets that we do not share - the colour of the setting sun and the early morn - the soil so richly, so attractively, so sanguinely red, offset by the green that is greener than the "ceaseless mile of the wheat"; imagine the purple and the sapphire blues, the whole box and dice of colours specially supplied by the spectroscope. No! there is nothing in coastal or mountain scenery to equal that galaxy of colour to be seen in the Barrier Ranges, morning after morning and evening after evening during the warm, Spring days.
+Imagine our complete sense of loss when we came to erect our tent - not a tent pole for miles, not a tree, not an inch of wood for fire - if only Marie Byles were here. Yet this city of the West holds many secrets that we do not share - the colour of the setting sun and the early morn - the soil so richly, so attractively, so sanguinely red, offset by the green that is greener than the "ceaseless mile of the wheat"; imagine the purple and the sapphire blues, the whole box and dice of colours specially supplied by the spectroscope. No! there is nothing in coastal or mountain scenery to equal that galaxy of colour to be seen in the Barrier Ranges, morning after morning and evening after evening during the warm, Spring days.
-Do you realise the height of the Barrier Ranges? Broken Hill itself is 1,000 feet above sea level. Along the coast that would mean gurgling creeks, perhaps rain forests at a cliif edge but I guess it was long before the days when the amoeba crawled amongst the "primordial slimes" that tht land of the Silver City was the scene of gushing streams. Poor worn-off stumps of mountains are these - the decayed roots of a giant's massive teeth. Occasionally, as at Silverton and Quondong, we happen upon the remnants of a mighty stream, now but a broadened, lazy bed of shifting sand. Ancient, weary and twisted old gums hang about the banks like the loafers outside the village pub on Saturdays - waiting for a drink, remembering the old days, thinking of Sturt and the mighty pioneers who passed their way.
+Do you realise the height of the Barrier Ranges? Broken Hill itself is 1,000 feet above sea level. Along the coast that would mean gurgling creeks, perhaps rain forests at a cliff edge but I guess it was long before the days when the amoeba crawled amongst the "primordial slimes" that the land of the Silver City was the scene of gushing streams. Poor worn-off stumps of mountains are these - the decayed roots of a giant's massive teeth. Occasionally, as at Silverton and Quondong, we happen upon the remnants of a mighty stream, now but a broadened, lazy bed of shifting sand. Ancient, weary and twisted old gums hang about the banks like the loafers outside the village pub on Saturdays - waiting for a drink, remembering the old days, thinking of Sturt and the mighty pioneers who passed their way.
 If one goes far enough West from "the Hill", one literally drops off the edge of the range onto the Mundi Mundi Plains. Imagine our feeling of amazement when, following a road through rolling hills clothed scantily in hungry mulga and "pom-pom" everlastings, we were suddenly confronted with a flat which stretched South, West and North to the horizon. Not just your ordinary undulating, commonplace kind of thing but a regular billiard table - flat, oh! so damnedly flat with rising clouds of dust, with [illegible] and any number of mirages without the asking.
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 In Silverton there is only one centre of activity, the General Store and Post Office, boasting as its headquarters a worn-out wood shed and a semi-collapsible weatherboard shack. Yet this is a town which once had a town clerk and a mayor but that was before Mr. Rash cracked the crown of Broken Hill less than eighteen miles away.
-A narrow-guage tramway runs through Silverton from Broken Hill to Cockburn on the South Atistralian Border - The Silverton Tramway.
+A narrow-guage tramway runs through Silverton from Broken Hill to Cockburn on the South Australian Border - The Silverton Tramway.
 To sit in one of the dog-box carriages whilst the locomotive sped up the incline of 200 in one at 10 miles per hour was worth the excessive charge for these same rails had carried fabulous wealth from the bowels of the earth to the teeming millions - the most extraordinary deposit of silver-lead-zinc in the world saw the light through the enterprise of the Silverton Tramway Company, incorporated in South Australia in nineteen hundred and something.
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 We made the best of our stay in bordertown - what a desolate [illegible]. By zig-zagging down the fence line (the fence had long since disappeared) we are now able to say that we have been in and out of South Australia eighteen times.
-The last few days we spent on the Darling River at Menindee. It's a sleepy town, Menindee! When Burke told Wills to book up the team at the local drinking house, it was little different from what it is today - indeed the grandson of the original owner now owns that hotel in Menindie. True, when the railway came through on its way to "the Hill" the town tended to shift from around the original punt crossing of the river to the new railway-cum-road bridge; but the old shacks are still there, chewed by the white ants and gnawed by the slowly passing years. If some one does not wake up soon, the sand dunes will finish off the job and smother the whole town in its final shroud.
+The last few days we spent on the Darling River at Menindee. It's a sleepy town, Menindee! When Burke told Wills to book up the team at the local drinking house, it was little different from what it is today - indeed the grandson of the original owner now owns that hotel in Menindee. True, when the railway came through on its way to "the Hill" the town tended to shift from around the original punt crossing of the river to the new railway-cum-road bridge; but the old shacks are still there, chewed by the white ants and gnawed by the slowly passing years. If some one does not wake up soon, the sand dunes will finish off the job and smother the whole town in its final shroud.
 The few days under the Murray River Gums beside the swollen river ended too soon. These camps are ever so different from the usual walkers' sojourn overnight - methinks they are the camps that Lawson knew so well and I guarantee there has been many a drover and many a sundowner under these selfsame red gums.
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 Pops was young and enthusiastic - "Cycling is so much better than walking.... good roads and lovely coasting downhill.... we could easily do Peat's Ferry and Wiseman's Ferry and come home through Galston Gorge to Hornsby...." Doubtful, but unprotesting, I was lead astray so.
-One December Saturday afternoon last year we met at Hornsby with full packs and our bikes. We get out in a shower of rain but had scarcely gone three miles before we were sweltering in the sun, which continued to smile on us up and down all those hills before the Hawkesbury. It did not take long for us to spread out - Sally, of course, well in the lead, Betty and Peg not far behind. But our energy availed us nothing. On a rise outside Cowan a car shot past with two bikes on the ruunig board and Flo and Pops waving gleefully from the back seat. We said things no ladies should and tried to console ourselves with the thought that the run down to Peat's Ferry is better than any car ride and it was - almost. Five miles down hill!
+One December Saturday afternoon last year we met at Hornsby with full packs and our bikes. We get out in a shower of rain but had scarcely gone three miles before we were sweltering in the sun, which continued to smile on us up and down all those hills before the Hawkesbury. It did not take long for us to spread out - Sally, of course, well in the lead, Betty and Peg not far behind. But our energy availed us nothing. On a rise outside Cowan a car shot past with two bikes on the running board and Flo and Pops waving gleefully from the back seat. We said things no ladies should and tried to console ourselves with the thought that the run down to Peat's Ferry is better than any car ride and it was - almost. Five miles down hill!
 Well,that was nice and the trip across on the ferry was very pleasant, but what a hill on the other side! Did Pops say cycling was better than walking? Cycling __is__ walking - mostly.
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 "For good old-fashioned convention, give me Era", said the wise bird near the door. "To see Joan Savage slaving back and forwards with the water while Harry reclined on the grass, fair made me nostalgic for the cave-man days. But we did reward our women with an occasional bone or two but Harry sooled a tick onto his "missus" so that she had to go home early."
-A little wren volunteered the information that Alan Hardy is out of the Army and back at work. When I asked the wren what it was tittering about, it said, "I was thinking of a funny story I heard about your "Dorman" though its a bit old.... On one occasion, "Dorman" was holding a carriage of walkers spell-bound by his rendition of "Lord Randall". He was standing with his back to the closed door of the compartment and had just arrived at the lines (executed with great dramatic effect) "And what come ye here for, My bonnie young mon?" when the door opened behind hin and a ticket-inspector said "Tickets, please".
+A little wren volunteered the information that Alan Hardy is out of the Army and back at work. When I asked the wren what it was tittering about, it said, "I was thinking of a funny story I heard about your "Dorman" though its a bit old.... On one occasion, "Dorman" was holding a carriage of walkers spell-bound by his rendition of "Lord Randall". He was standing with his back to the closed door of the compartment and had just arrived at the lines (executed with great dramatic effect) "And what come ye here for, My bonnie young mon?" when the door opened behind him and a ticket-inspector said "Tickets, please".
 I asked a coy but pretty bird why she was looking so disgusted. "Why wouldn't you be?" she said, "Arthur Gilroy took a W.R.A.N. down to Era and just missed drowning her. Indeed, he was so sure everything was over, that he paced up and down the rocks waiting to collect the body when the waves threw it up. Alas, it wasn't so.... my hopes are nil."
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 What is wrong with our Walking Club? Nothing as far as I can see but this article would be silly if such an assumption were made. So here are my suggestions for renewing that interest in walking which some people think is the purpose for which the club was formed. Any originality is humbly disclaimed as a step in the right direction was made years ago at Kanangra and the surf club at Era has also shown the way.
-The suggestion is that a series of dancing floors be [illegible] the countryside. No further incentive to both young and old members would be required if it were known, for example, that the dancing floor at Kanangra Walls was in good condition so that the party doing the Gargerangs could indulge in a spot of dancing upon arriving there the first night. Think how hard it would be to restrain the members as they raced over the High and Mighty, Rip, Roar and Rumble, if they knew that a dancing floor existed on top of Cloudmaker. (Though, actually, that would be a silly locaton - Dex Creek would be the logical site.)
+The suggestion is that a series of dancing floors be [illegible] the countryside. No further incentive to both young and old members would be required if it were known, for example, that the dancing floor at Kanangra Walls was in good condition so that the party doing the Gargerangs could indulge in a spot of dancing upon arriving there the first night. Think how hard it would be to restrain the members as they raced over the High and Mighty, Rip, Roar and Rumble, if they knew that a dancing floor existed on top of Cloudmaker. (Though, actually, that would be a silly location - Dex Creek would be the logical site.)
 For the scoffer who cynically asks "Where will you get the money for all this?" the answer is simple. Let the club erect, from the money subscribed to buy the Era land, a dancing floor at North North Era. By charging an entrance fee of a "deener" (this nomenclature is necessary to avoid paying amusement tax) to the weekly dance held there, sufficient funds would be quickly acquired. The bus proprietor would no doubt give a substantial sum to the Dancing Floor Movement to show his gratification for the fortune he acquires from transporting the thousands of __walkers__ to Governor Game Lookout.
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 Large mileages are Gordon's strongest point. He told me that in walks under 15 miles he is by no means a record-holder, a matter which may be a surprise to many who have been out with him and thought he flew over the ground, rough and smooth alike.
-His now great love of bushwaiking through the rough as well as along tracks is all the more interesting because racing walks are always along roads or at best good tracks. Long distance races, in which Gordon holds the record, are always along roads because it is only possible by this means to get the mileage calculated. The shorter walks are sometimes along tracks but none of them are remotely like bushwalking.
+His now great love of bushwalking through the rough as well as along tracks is all the more interesting because racing walks are always along roads or at best good tracks. Long distance races, in which Gordon holds the record, are always along roads because it is only possible by this means to get the mileage calculated. The shorter walks are sometimes along tracks but none of them are remotely like bushwalking.
 "Therefore how did you come to join the S.B,W." Gordon thought a good while but could not exactly remember. He was a foundation member of the Club and even before it was formed he recalls one purely pleasure walk of 500 miles which took him from Sydney through Nowra, Mossvale, Thirlmere, Burragorang, Jenolan, Bell, Richmond and Parramatta in 16 days, so apparently the germ of bushwalking came into existence unawares.
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 "Both are pleasurable. Racing is hard work and has a certain fascination but it can't go on for ever. Each year I decide to knock off and then someone comes along and I go in for it for one year more. At best I can hardly do it for another 10 years. But bushwalking will go on for ever, I hope. It is the combination of walking and scenery that gives charm to bushwalking, not so much the wildflowers which do not appeal to me much, but the wider landscape. Then, of course, there is good companionship, swimming - and eating!"
-Scenery being one of the main attractions of bushwalking it may seem strange to some that Gordon has taken only two important walks further afield, one to Barrington Tops and one to Tumut and Kosciusko. The explanation is that what he has seen of other parts only makes him love the southern Blue Mountains more. However, this year he is off to New Zealand and a taste of mountaineering, and it will be interestirg to hear whether this type of scenery attracts him as much as his beloved Cox and Kowmung.
+Scenery being one of the main attractions of bushwalking it may seem strange to some that Gordon has taken only two important walks further afield, one to Barrington Tops and one to Tumut and Kosciusko. The explanation is that what he has seen of other parts only makes him love the southern Blue Mountains more. However, this year he is off to New Zealand and a taste of mountaineering, and it will be interesting to hear whether this type of scenery attracts him as much as his beloved Cox and Kowmung.
 This year is the first year bushwalkers have taken part in race-walking and, as we all know, they topped the lists coming second, third and fourth after Gordon in each event. I was very interested, therefore, to hear Gordon's comments on the possibility of racing walkers being drawn from the bushwalking movement. It was this:
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 =====Letter From John Harvey.=====
-_
+The following letter was received by the Secretary from John Harvey, a club member now resident in Hobart. In response to a request for publication John was a little doubtful saying, "I may have been a little more critical of Tasmania than was justified in an article to be read publicly." I, on the other hand, think that this is a good appraisement of Tasmania and trust that, in publishing it, I do not cause him to be ostracised. (Ed.)
-The-followtng-lter was-recetved by the Secretary-froM JORY-H-
--.'-ar---clu:_b..member now resident in Hobart. In response to a request publicdtton John-was a little doubtful saying,"I may have been a more critical of Tat..tzlania than was justified in an article to be
-Ison the other-handlthink that this is a good appraisement Tasmania and trust that:sin publishing itoI do not .ause him to be *1:.
-"IY:p1.11, 'letter with_ notes about, 3347' progress was-- rerr welcome) especially from the point of view of a po-or---13.artiOated SBW "non-active .1.f-,frozen to death in Tasmania. These cold dayslwith snow on all ha/a(
-'heavy f'ro,s ts and frOzen puddles on the roads all. day,and (usually) an absence of'-suri shinelmakes me long for a good hot humid sti-eksr day in th(
-'bush round KU- 1;1=r16-g,ai Maze way. 1-never-reali..,ad how one can miss hot
-sunshine so much. as I-he done since I came to Hobart. 3i years ago.
-There are occasional hot days in Summer,pariazIng--two-orr three c.
- altogothe,a diroct heat which burns eyerrone like lobsters. I don't escapeseven though I 3,c'es-o-t. sunburTIt in t... NSW bush. But most days
-Summer you tell the season mainly by seetni whether there are leaves n.
-the English trees or not;it snows any old time. The Summer-before last
-I and the two boys spent three days in Windermere hut in Lake St...Clair-
-. -M-t-Cradle Reserve while the blizzard raged without. Even with a roar=-7 fire inside the hut,011,9-coula see onets breath in the air. It was JaT -hard to imagine people surfing and sunhang-on Sydney beaches, has fallen on Mt.Wellington every month of the year-ai-nee-welv.4
-Innide4tally surfirg is unknown in Tasmania. Every 1Dach:_c3
-as "dangorousc' andsin any casesthey are alwys remote and
-surf never so good as In New South Wales. Also the water is bitterl cold always. A few people bathe in enclosed waters - a few days in Hor.
-(at Sandy Bay) there is 'even a crowd on the beadh-ana watts_edge---Joul: if you go surfing you go alc*Pe
-The Tasmanian bush is iaxtx-6ko rd'nAa,li3r-rough-and-Tsttggedor-ary mountainous and Conditions and climate hard. Rec3ntly I saw a monument
-on the Hartz Mountain (after struggle along a track up to my_knes almost - in mud most of the previous day ) to two men who died of exposure-the in November,. On Mt.Wellington there is a monument to a doctor who died.-G...e exposure in January. Underfoot it is usually wet and camping as we know it in N.S.W. it almost unknown here. Hilts are erect& in most places walkers get to and,no matter how determinedly peu-peck
-' your tent with the intention of using t,one alwars---finishes up in the hut along with the rest - and mightly glad to be there as a rule. But I still can't- gt-out. of the habit of carrying the extra weight-of-a-t&nt
-On the eastern_.(dry) side of Tasnianiaoscenery and conditionsf,are similar to western N.S.W. orssay,half-way between Bathurst country and Riverina with a few small area-s-of-Sydney type of bush-thrown in ( round 061..esay). Water is obtainable only-by calling at a farm hous3!
-the weatherphoweversis just as cold.
-Hobart has its own special type of Southerly called the ca brs eze, If the day shows the slightest inclination to,warmth_th,.i breezma6 along and-freezes the mappow-eut-of-you.
-Of course there are manreempensations in Tasmania;the sc-en.2r?-: -le-Imat_and,granal....I think that if it were oa1l5r warmer I should be
-,
-'Oliday place to a plao 01 resic'.2.Leful- people used t_
-weather. But Tasmanians who have lived in Sydney have quite other vieY.:' it is too hot,too sticky,they long for the sight of a "real" mountain, they long for weather of what they call the "invigorating" kind, they don't like walking in bush without water (forgetting that half the couL: arouhd Hobart is waterless and you have to call at farms for it and eve: th-J farmer begrudge f is so short). They don't like the dry Sydne-
-ridges,wIthout
-was 71acl 31-1.t me a walks programme so that at least I had
-the thrill of see-1,(2- the names of places;many of the names of leaders, however,are new to me I also see that on Oct.19th you are to have a lecture ''7Teeta:7Tnr-_ 33 not a fad", Considering the number of times
-we "iiu as off at" even In "The Bushwalker" its ni(
-to think the ether LIO to be presented cp is it just a "have"?).
-Tasman:Lai, not wear shortsypartly1I think,because of
-climate,partly because1-,e roughness bf the bush and partly because
-It simply "isn't done". No' have I ever seen in Tasmania a group of little tents so typical of our walking weekends round Sydney - in fact the only walkers' tent I have ever seen in Tasmania is my own. Nor H: the walkers seem to use the same range of equipment as we do,generiT there are a few "Paddv-made" items or similar) and the rest make:
-The Hobart Walking Club is partly a ski-ing club; in Winter a7: walks are off as long as there is snow on the mountain. I persevered with trying to ski until I had to walk 9 miles with full pack and het, skis from National Park on a severly sprained ankle. After that I thou
-better stick to walking and forget the ski-ing, But I admit that skiing would be great fun once you got the hang of it..
-Incidentally walkers who are thinking of doing the 70 mile trip through Lake St.Clair- Cradle Mountain Reserve some time should de as early as conditions permit for a motor road is planned through the northern end aDd a riding track at the southern. At present,going-from
-hut to hut,walkers have the place entirely to themselves,but once a roa goes through it won't be solasant with cars and buses whizzing by.
-It is a five day trip if no' huts are missed and it can be extended for long as food holds out. There is a charming by-track now opened up to Pine Valley with further4valks round the hut there,including the Laby-
-rinth( a labyrinth of lakes and tarns with pines and snowy mountains
-round about). The snow apparently holds out all through Summer;they ca get completely clothed with snow during bad Summer weather.- Incidental January is not a good time for the trip as,last aammer,even with war restrictions on travellthe huts were very much overcrowded. Even with
-only a few people ta. a hut,cooking on the one fire becomes a problem,
-at least It is to walkers used to open-air fires as in N.S.W. and I
- to think of the crush when 20 or tore get into a hut with room for 12. A non-holiday monthltherefore,would mean more comfort as far "hutting." iarconcerned. Of course in Winter no-one goes through;IL, no-one has ever even ski-ed thripgh I don't know why.
-I expect this is all you'll want lo read about Tasmania. 04r w.:Ao..or000m Kind regards from Dora and myself.
-,7 ,Jush (,hernit
-Ruminating on the ignorance of the prospective who has be told that he will not want to walk in all those sweatersoset my mind running along the lines of the title and I thought what a lot can be learnt about heat and cold. For instanceldid you know that the therma conductivity of the eider-down in your sleeping bag is 0.00001 calories-per-second-per cubic centimeter-per degree centigrade while the same property of a woollen blanket is 0,0002 dittoes- or twenty tiMes as much
-Even Durilb Dora can see that you keep much warmer in a down sleeping bag.
-Howeverpwe have to remember that eiderdown loses much of its insulating effect if it is flattened by the weight of the sleeper, Hence the OOMMOr
-practice of putting extra material underneath2vhere the down must of necessity be compresed-and 1666 its "fluffiness".
-Most people know of the chilling effect2produced by evaporation,
-when wind blows on a wet water-bucket of japara or canvas. It should b-
-obviousothen2that waxing your bucket to slow its leakage rate also re,-. c
-this evaporation and makes it a much less satisfactory spot to stoe
-butter when in camp. By the same token2walkers may discount the cd71.
-to wrap the butter jar in a wet towel and stow it in the centre of pack. A wet towel is not a scrap colder than a dry one unless it has wind blowing on it to cause evaporation. Few of U8 have rucksacks as fur of holes as that!
-a 0 600 I 9 fig 00 we.
-Changing now to consideration of cold waether2I recall'a night OD May'when2.camping in Kangaroo Valley2we experienced bitter cold2.damp and fog. Morning found the interior of our A tent dripping steadily with water. Thisoof course2was caused by warm2moisture-laden breath striking the cold tent and depOsiting water. This water had no tendency to evap -orate as it would do0for example,in the equally coldoyet dry conditions one might experience. at Corral SWamp.
-   its**4erei
-The same phenomenon is responsible for the oft-heard cry : My groundsheet is not waterproof / Wearing a groundsheet while walking in t rain2we frequently seem to get the sheet just as wet inside as outside. Why is this? Simply because the graundsheet2wet with rain2forms a cold,'
-. condensing Sui4face to trap the moisture from the warm air which surround' the walker's body2just as a cold glass mirror condenses moisture from one's breath. The inner surface of the capeptherefore2becomes wetrnot with rain water2but with condensed perspiration i
-.0000049011096.994,
-Next month we shall delve into the marvels of the human body's -temperature-regulating mechanism which has2particular1y in the case of walkers2to be able to adjust itself to as many variations of temperature as a Sydney-sider dependent on coal.
+"Your letter with notes about SBW progress was very welcome, especially from the point of view of a poor benighted SBW "non-active" half-frozen to death in Tasmania. These cold days, with snow on all hands, heavy frosts and frozen puddles on the roads all day, and (usually) an absence of sunshine, makes me long for a good hot humid sticky day in the bush round Ku-ring-gai Chase way. I never realised how one can miss hot sunshine so much as I have done since I came to Hobart 3 1/2 years ago.
+There are occasional hot days in Summer, perhaps two or three altogether, a direct heat which burns everyone like lobsters. I don't escape, even though I never got sunburnt in the NSW bush. But most days in Summer you tell the season mainly by seeing whether there are leaves on the English trees or not; it snows any old time. The Summer before last I and the two boys spent three days in Windermere hut in Lake St.Clair-Mt.Cradle Reserve while the blizzard raged without. Even with a roaring fire inside the hut, one could see one's breath in the air. It was hard to imagine people surfing and sunbathing on Sydney beaches. Snow has fallen on Mt.Wellington every month of the year since we've been here.
+Incidentally surfing is unknown in Tasmania. Every beach is described as "dangerous" and, in any case, they are always remote and the surf never so good as in New South Wales. Also the water is bitterly cold always. A few people bathe in enclosed waters - a few days in Hobart (at Sandy Bay) there is even a crowd on the beach and water's edge - but if you go surfing you go alone.
+The Tasmanian bush is extraordinarily rough and rugged, very mountainous and conditions and climate hard. Recently I saw a monument on the Hartz Mountain (after struggle along a track up to my knees - almost - in mud most of the previous day) to two men who died of exposure there in __November__. On Mt.Wellington there is a monument to a doctor who died of exposure in January. Underfoot it is usually wet and camping as we know it in N.S.W. it almost unknown here. Huts are erected in most places walkers get to and, no matter how determinedly you pack your tent with the intention of using it,one always finishes up in the hut along with the rest - and mightily glad to be there as a rule. But I still can't get out of the habit of carrying the extra weight of a tent.
+On the eastern (dry) side of Tasmania, scenery and conditions are similar to western N.S.W. or, say, half-way between Bathurst country and Riverina with a few small areas of Sydney type of bush thrown in (as round Coles Bay). Water is obtainable only by calling at a farm house; the weather, however, is just as cold.
+Hobart has its own special type of Southerly called "the sea breeze". If the day shows the slightest inclination to warmth the breeze comes along and freezes the marrow out of you.
+Of course there are many compensations in Tasmania; the scenery is vast and grand. I think that if it were only warmer I should be [illegible] preferable as a holiday place to a place of permanent residence, for people used to [illegible] weather. But Tasmanians who have lived in Sydney have quite other vies; it is too hot, too sticky, they long for the sight of a "real" mountain, they long for weather of what they call the "invigorating" kind, they don't like walking in bush without water (forgetting that half the country around Hobart is waterless and you have to call at farms for it and even the farmer begrudges it he is so short). They don't like the dry Sydney ridges, without "scenery" etc.
+I was glad you sent me a walks programme so that at least I had the thrill of seeing the names of places; many of the names of leaders, however, are new to me. I also see that on Oct. 19th you are to have a lecture "Vegetarianism is not a fad". Considering the number of times we poor vegetarians get "slung off at" even in "The Bushwalker" it's nice to think the other side is to be presented (or is it just a "have"?).
+Tasmanian walkers do not wear shorts, partly, I think, because of the climate, partly because of the roughness of the bush and partly because it simply "isn't done". Nor have I ever seen in Tasmania a group of little tents so typical of our walking weekends round Sydney - in fact the only walkers' tent I have ever seen in Tasmania is my own. Nor do the walkers seem to use the same range of equipment as we do, generally there are a few "Paddy-made" items or similar and the rest make do.
+The Hobart Walking Club is partly a ski-ing club; in Winter all walks are off as long as there is snow on the mountain. I persevered with trying to ski until I had to walk 9 miles with full pack and heavy skis from National Park on a severely sprained ankle. After that I thought I'd better stick to walking and forget the ski-ing, But I admit that ski-ing would be great fun once you got the hang of it.
+Incidentally walkers who are thinking of doing the 70 mile trip through Lake St.Clair - Cradle Mountain Reserve some time should do so as early as conditions permit for a motor road is planned through the northern end and a riding track at the southern. At present, going-from hut to hut, walkers have the place entirely to themselves, but once a road goes through it won't be so pleasant with cars and buses whizzing by. It is a five day trip if no huts are missed and it can be extended for long as food holds out. There is a charming by-track now opened up to Pine Valley with further walks round the hut there, including the Labyrinth(a labyrinth of lakes and tarns with pines and snowy mountains round about). The snow apparently holds out all through Summer; they can get completely clothed with snow during bad Summer weather. Incidentally, January is not a good time for the trip as, last summer, even with war restrictions on travel, the huts were very much overcrowded. Even with only a few people in a hut,cooking on the one fire becomes a problem, at least it is to walkers used to open-air fires as in N.S.W. and I hate to think of the crush when 20 or more get into a hut with room for only 12. A non-holiday month, therefore, would mean more comfort as far as "hutting" is concerned. Of course in Winter no-one goes through; I'm sure no-one has ever even ski-ed through - I don't know why.
+I expect this is all you'll want to read about Tasmania.....
+Kind regards from Dora and myself."
+=====Thermostats For Walkers.=====
+by "Bush Chemist".
+Ruminating on the ignorance of the prospective who has to be told that he will not want to walk in all those sweaters, set my mind running along the lines of the title and I thought what a lot can be learnt about heat and cold. For instance, did you know that the thermal conductivity of the eider-down in your sleeping bag is 0.00001 calories-per-second-per cubic centimeter-per degree centigrade, while the same property of a woollen blanket is 0.0002 dittoes- or twenty tiMes as much. Even Dumb Dora can see that you keep much warmer in a down sleeping bag. However, we have to remember that eiderdown loses much of its insulating effect if it is flattened by the weight of the sleeper. Hence the common practice of putting extra material underneath, where the down must of necessity be compressed and lose its "fluffiness".
+----
+Most people know of the chilling effect, produced by evaporation, when wind blows on a wet water-bucket of japara or canvas. It should be obvious, then, that waxing your bucket to slow its leakage rate also reduces this evaporation and makes it a much less satisfactory spot to store the butter when in camp. By the same token, walkers may discount the advice to wrap the butter jar in a wet towel and stow it in the centre of pack. A wet towel is not a scrap colder than a dry one unless it has wind blowing on it to cause evaporation. Few of us have rucksacks as full of holes as that!
+----
+Changing now to consideration of cold weather, I recall a night one May when, camping in Kangaroo Valley, we experienced bitter cold, damp and fog. Morning found the interior of our A tent dripping steadily with water. This, of course, was caused by warm, moisture-laden breath striking the cold tent and depositing water. This water had no tendency to evaporate as it would do, for example, in the equally cold, yet dry conditions one might experience at Corral Swamp.
+----
+The same phenomenon is responsible for the oft-heard cry: My groundsheet is not waterproof! Wearing a groundsheet while walking in the rain, we frequently seem to get the sheet just as wet inside as outside. Why is this? Simply because the groundsheet, wet with rain, forms a cold condensing surface to trap the moisture from the warm air which surrounds the walker's body, just as a cold glass mirror condenses moisture from one's breath. The inner surface of the cape, therefore, becomes wet, not with rain water, but with condensed perspiration!
+----
+Next month we shall delve into the marvels of the human body's temperature-regulating mechanism which has, particularly in the case of walkers, to be able to adjust itself to as many variations of temperature as a Sydney-sider dependent on coal.