THE LONG WAY DOWN

IMAGINE completing a multi track walk from the northern town of Penguin and finishing at Cockle Creek, Rocky Bay in the southeast. Our six walks were Penguin to Cradle Trail (P2C), Overland Track (OT), Frenchmans Cap (FC), Port Davey Track (PD), South West Cape Track (SWC) and South Coast Track (SC). Our start date was Wed 12th February, with a plan to finish walking on Wed 25th March 2020. This is our story.

There are many ways to describe Tasmania, as it captures people’s hearts in different ways. Ray Glancy, the leader of this epic walk, and his wife Dawn, had their hearts captured decades ago when they first explored the island. Ray has since ventured into more rugged, wetter, snow covered, isolated areas of this state, taking along many a fortunate soul from the Brisbane Bushwalking Club. Shannon Bratton (my wife) and I first trekked here in 2016, falling in love with the Overland Track and the grandeur of good ol’ Tassie mountains.

We knew through bitter experience that not everything goes according to plan, in any walk, let alone this mammoth task. Fate and the Tassie weather would have us complete the first four hikes (with variants), add on 224 km of sailing