Overnight, I could hear the trees outside my room creaking and banging in the wind. It had picked up, and by morning, the wind gusts were reaching up to 140 km/hr. When we arrived down for breakfast, the guides gave us the bad news—the track to Cape Hauy was closed due to the winds, so we wouldn’t have been able to make the side trip out, even if we had wanted to. They had also closed the inland track and The Blade. We counted ourselves lucky that we had done The Blade the previous day. If we decide to come back to the Tasman Peninsula at some stage, it is possible to do the Cape Huay walk as a day walk, but The Blade requires you to either do the full walk or come in on the inland track with a rough camp overnight. There was further bad news, as one of our group could not continue the walk and would need a helicopter ride out. To make matters worse for the couple affected, the high winds made an evacuation impossible, so they would be spending the night on a mattress in the second lounge, as the next group was due to arrive that afternoon.

After breakfast, we said our goodbyes and headed off into the weather. This morning, I was the sole “Go Bold! Go Cold!” participant. It was wet, and it was cold. I persisted with shorts mainly because the scab on my knee from falling over before we left Melbourne kept catching on my long pants. Not far out on the path, we saw our furry wildlife of the walk—a pandemelon. We saw plenty of evidence of animals on the paths but they don’t have to retreat very far into the impenetrable bush to be invisible.

I was determined to spot the hut built of sticks by the track workers that I hadn’t spotted on the way in. They camped out in the bush and needed something to amuse themselves in the hours they weren’t working.

The regrouped at Retakunna Hut, the public hut at the base of Mount Fortescue. We removed our extra layers in preparation for the hike up the mountain. Not far up the slope, the vegetation changes to rainforest. My photos did not do this area justice. You can use your imagination to imagine moss and lichens growing all over boulders, trees and fallen logs. It was utterly beautiful. It’s a decent climb up to the summit at 490m above sea level. Luckily we did not start at sea level.

At the top, we stopped to regroup and have morning tea. We were in the trees, which provided some shelter from the raging winds, but I was soon freezing even though I had layered back up again and even put my beanie on. We did pop out to the cliff edge to take in the views, but you had to time it right as the weather kept closing in.

Once we had all regrouped and had something to eat, I was particularly keen on getting moving, as I was shivering by this stage. As we headed downhill through the rainforest, I had some good opportunities to spot fungi.

We also stopped in a part of the forest dominated by massive tree ferns that grow up to 15 metres tall.

We emerged from the rainforest on Mount Fortescue to continue along the path that follows the coastline. There were several lookouts along the way.

We passed the turnoff to Cape Hauy and kept on the main path to Fortescue Bay. G and I caught up to another couple and walked and chatted with them for the last 500 metres or so. You come in along the southern side of the bay. We were pretty happy to finally arrive, drop our packs under the picnic shelter, and use the facilities. There were a few other groups of people on day trips or camping at the site. If the weather was a bit better, we might have swam, but as it was I contented myself with a stroll on the beach to admire the beautiful aqua waters.

Our bus driver arrived bearing more homemade goodies for afternoon tea. Then, we boarded the bus and headed back to the company base in Hobart. Once there, we emptied our packs, picked up our luggage, had a celebratory drink, and then headed off to our hotel for the night. We would just have time to squeeze in a dinner at Mures and another breakfast at Berta before catching our flight back to Melbourne the next morning.