Continental breakfast and hot drinks were available from 7 a.m., with hot breakfast served at 7:30 a.m. each morning. After fueling up for the day, we collected our lunches, selecting our choice of extras to pop in with the salad that had been made up by the host and later put into wraps carried by our guides. Then it was back to our rooms to finish getting ready, pack up our gear and tidy up our bedrooms because tonight we would be sleeping at Cape Pillar Lodge. Once on the trail, it was a short walk before the track started climbing to the top of Arthur’s Peak. The views from the top were spectacular.

We were soon heading upwards again along the seaward side of Crescent Mountain. The track passes through a small section of cloud forest. The cloud forests on the Tasman Peninsula form due to the moisture-laden sea mist being forced upwards as it hits the sea cliffs; supporting an unusual diversity of plants that are able to strip water from the air. This summer was very dry in Tasmania and even the cloud forests were showing signs of strain, with the moss turning brown instead of its normal bright green colour.

Walking out of the cloud forest, the vista opened up as we walked down into Ellarwey Valley. Here, the dense scrub grows between waist and shoulder height. In the 1960s, a pair of hikers, Tim Christie and Reg Williams, attempted bush bashing through the area several times over a number of years to reach Cape Pillar. Reg originally named this region ‘Where the flippin’ ‘ell are we valley,’ which has been shortened to Ellarwey Valley.

Note: The only toilets along the track are at the public huts. The thick scrub all along the track makes it almost impossible to go any distance off the track. G and I solved the toilet conundrum by heading a little bit along the track when the group stopped, one of us headed off while the other stayed on the track to give a warning. Suffice it to say, it’s a lot easier for guys on the track than girls … good luck if you need to get off and dig a hole. We didn’t need to.

After we regrouped in the Ellarwey Valley and took care of business, it was only a short walk to our spectacular lunch spot. From the seats, you looked across the vast sweep of the Southern Ocean. There’s nothing between here and Antarctica.

With bellies full, we hit the track again for the final stretch of today’s walk. We all walked at our own pace, through the forest, stopping at Munroes Hut (the public hut for night 2) to regroup and get final instructions for reaching our hut. Munroes Hut has a spectacular setting with a massive deck overlooking Munro Bight, so it was a pleasure to flop down there and enjoy the view. Since we were not public walkers, we did not enter the huts, but we could go on the deck and use the drop toilets at the hut. The public huts look pretty good too. If you take that option, you must carry all your food and sleeping gear, but you don’t need tents, mattresses or cooking equipment. Munro Hut even has a bucket shower which you can heat some water.

Once the whole group had arrived, our guides gave us instructions for getting to our hut. We were to look for the pole and the orange ribbon Ollie, one of our guides, was going to tie to a branch near the turnoff. If was pretty straight forward. As we walked we enjoyed the changing forest before reaching the turnoff for the final push up the switchback trail to the huts. Once arrived we met the hut host, got our room assignments and then once again enjoyed fresh baked cake with hot and cold drinks. Cape Pillar Lodge had a similar layout to our previous night’s accommodation, with the addition of a massage hut and plunge pool (unheated). G took advantage of the opportunity to have a massage on both days we were staying at this hut. The masseuse stays for about a week at a time because it is a two-hour hike in and out to the hut from Fortescue Bay, taking the inland track.

After settling in, G and I spent the time before pre-dinner drinks sitting on the deck, staring out over the ocean. It was strangely mesmerising and refreshing to be able to sit like that for so long. Dinner was excellent once again: a wallaby chilli. Afterwards, it was story time with Ollie. Each evening, one of the guides would tell us about what we could expect the next day, teach us about various aspects of the track or environment and sometimes we’d get a story too. Then, I chatted with our friends before getting off to bed. Excited for our adventure that awaited the next day.