Thursday, 24 October 2013
A body clock that works on an early night and a rise between four and five might apply almost all year round, but doesn't mean you can't enjoy sleeping in when circumstances permit. Under ordinary circumstances, I really need a very late night, a significant overindulgence or an overarching weariness that makes oversleeping essential.
Then, of course, you have the circumstance when the subconscious registers the conditions outside, aware that they may impinge on the next day's activities, and decides to shut things down and wait to see how things shape up in the morning.
Wind and overnight rain certainly brought the day's planned itinerary, based around a walk to Russell Falls into question. From the Visitor Centre, the falls themselves are a twenty minute return, reasonable enough, though you wouldn't want to be doing twenty minutes in persistent rain and cold conditions. We had intentions of going a bit further than the Falls, possibly up to Horseshoe Falls and on to the Tall Trees, but if the wind and rain persisted we were probably going to be forced to head straight for Swansea.
The plan, once breakfast had been consumed, and last night's beer paid for, was to head to the Mount Field National Park Visitor Centre, check out the conditions and options, do the walk as far as was feasible and be on the road to Swansea well before midday. We'd nutted that out before breakfast and our respective turns in the bathroom, and while Madam got first go at the hot water supply I did a bit of homework.
A glance at the Pocket Weather app on the iPad revealed the following weather data for Bushy Park, which seems to be code for New Norfolk. Predicted temperature range 4 to 12, currently 6.1 with 6mm overnight. Madam found the weather radar while I was showering and announced it was definitely heavier over towards Port Arthur, and a look suggested things were headed in that direction so you'd be upbeat about the walk to Russell Falls and back.
Breakfast arrived in stages, fruit and cereal first, cooked dishes later. I'd gone for scrambled eggs and mushrooms, with Madam choosing the omelette. As has frequently remarked, there's nothing like the farm fresh egg flavour profile.
We weren't in a hurry to leave since Maps informed us it was an exact 180 kilometres to Swansea. Even allowing for a circuit as far as the Tall Trees and back, provided we were on the road by noon we should be in Swansea somewhere around three.
The weather definitely appeared to be clearing, but our hosts had interesting meteorological snippets regarding minimum temperatures and something called Snow Cam, which suggested actual falls of the white stuff in nearby mountain areas. That, along with the wind and the rain accounted for sleeping in.