Thursday January 8

Spent the entire day in the tent - freakiest weather I have seen, period.  15-30 min cycles of Sun, cloud, rain, hail, cloud sun, repeated over and over...  Meant to get out and do some washing, but too cold and nasty to bother.  So glad I pushed on.  Would have been a totally shit day to walk in.  I remember standing and watching the fronts roll in at Granite Beach and the moment crystallising - my bushwalker's intuition said 'let's get the hell outta here' and I'm glad I did.

My theory is that there's a mountain to the west somewhere, and just like a rock in a stream, the wind is hitting it and swirling around, creating these extremely regular little weather patterns.  Tassie weather sucks.

Spent basically the entire day in the tent.  God, the boredom!  Revised my journal, made some cute maps (have to scan these in for the online journal), checked the map several times.  Planned the next day (no big deal).  I really wanted to reward myself with some lounging on the beach, bodysurfing, or swimming the rivulet, but the weather would have none of it.  I had put out my jacket in the faint hope it would dry eventually.  As I watched it get soaked, I thought 'screw it' and after a while brought it back in and hung it inside on Matthew's superlative hanging racks.

Now I know what bed-ridden people feel like (maybe).  I didn't quite get bedsores, but I certainly felt very weary from forced into a prone position and doing nothing for 36 hours.  Mental note: Bring something to amuse myself in future if caught in the tent again.  I'm looking at something like a digital music player/note recorder.  Battery power's an issue, but not unsolvable, and in voice-quality mode, each can store something silly, like 60 hours of notes.  That would mean I wouldn't have to spend ages scribbling, then ages try to read the scribble.  Neat.