One of the emerald lakes.
Today we went for our first real tramp - the Tongariro Crossing (which I alluded to previously - you mean youre not reading the blog religiously?). This is the place where Frodo and Gollum fell off mt doom. so we (dad, me and our newfound irish hostel friends) thought it'd be a good idea to do the trek when the weather wasn't that good. not a good idea folks.
we started the tramp at 20 past 8, and it was raining. not hard, but enough for my "waterproof" jacket to be quite wet after 45 minutes or so. The beginning was quite nice, appearance wise. small scrubby plants, little brooks, small waterfalls, the like. then we hit the volcanic soil. we had to have ascended 1000 ft in 40 minutes. over volcanic rock. its a bit difficult to find ones footing on volcanic rock. quite difficult in fact. and its not even like the views made up for it, since we were in a cloud. yet we triumphed. oh wait then there was more uphill volcanic rock. it kept coming. i kept thinking it was over, but no - thats one of the problems of hiking in a cloud.
we (finally) reached a point when we got solid footing again (which seemed like such a gift). But we still had half of the ascent to complete. at this point the cutesy vegetation has disappeared, the wind no longer at our backs but 5 times as strong and at our sides, and we're walking along the edge of a crater. i would have been fearful of being swept away into the crater (i should have been fearful of it) but my thoughts were busy with "biggest steps possible woman" and "I can do this".
Eventually we did make it to the top - which brings me to the former part of the title to the post. by this time, from the rain and sweat combo, i was soaked thru, and the winds hadnt let up so it was freezing cold (and the temp wasnt much above). hence antarctica - the moon came from the landscape - look for pics later (when i have more time ahh only 6 minutes left!). no vegetation, only volcanic soil. and big rocks and craters. some of which were technicolor which was slightly pretty (on a nicer day they would have been beautiful).
This is the view from the side of the crater - the camera is not at all tilted.
after hearing my tummy rumble i realized i was hungry, so i sat down to eat one of my 3 peanut butter sandwiches. whats that crunch? i thought - the wheat breads not usually that crunchy. ahhh i was munching on some volcanic soil. oh well.
eventually we made it back. vegetation increase as did temps. and now im dry (not quite warm yet) with a wicked blister on my 2nd from baby toe on my left foot. (i knew you wanted to know that).
more later
2 comments:
wow -- sounds brutal. glad you were warming up at the end. i'm looking forward to the pics. at least your dad didn't break his foot, which was our experience under similar conditions many moons ago.
hahaha i love these posts, i just caught up on all of them. i can see you clinging to the side of the crater like the hobbits did. can't wait to see more pictures, they're so beautiful!!
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