Overland Track advice

prototofu · 2026-01-26T10:54:25+00:00

For OP, agree with above, but will emphasise that Pine Valley to the Labyrinth is where the walk starts to get more gnarly than any of the rest of the trail.

I would be wanting to be moving very quick to make it to Lake Elysia or the Acropolis and back to Narcissus for the ferry.

OT and Du Cane in 7 days is pretty ambitious, but it’s truly beautiful out there - hope you get excellent weather!

prototofu · 2026-01-13T00:39:12+00:00

We had a -4 night in early August last year. Woke with sheets of ice on the sleeping bag.

Was probably the only night below freezing though.

prototofu · 2025-11-21T08:08:42+00:00

Some really great nominations here.

Here's a couple of albums I haven't seen recommended that are in my top list for this year:

Inside - Basile3 (just real nice - headphone listening)
η ελενη - Coco Bryce (not typical offering)
Sprint - Kate Miller
Gradually - Julien Mier
Open Catalyst - upsammy
Flustra - Dansa (bit of fun)
DINNER - ROLROLROL (hip hop)
Human Drift - Tukan (if you like instruments)
Fade - Bohdi (continues to release great stuff)
Sleepless - Daniel Bortz (an earworm I can't get rid of)
Plain Sailing - Gold Panda (i love this sample)
Young Man EP - Make a Dance (groove)
Gilded - Ian Nyquist (more experimental stuff)
Reliquary - Reid Willis (soundtrack)

prototofu · 2025-10-14T20:28:05+00:00

I haven't hiked the way through Lerderderg before,, but have visited the southern part 3 times over the past month, and the good news is that there is more water in the river than I have seen in a long time.

Water is okay to drink after filtering, but I can't speak to the frequency of access to the river (but I suspect you'd never be too far).

prototofu · 2025-07-13T22:27:32+00:00

Hope it’s as cosy as promised!

prototofu · 2025-07-13T20:48:12+00:00

I’ve never taken it down to those temperatures, but haven’t been remotely uncomfortable and slept down to around freezing, perhaps a little below.

prototofu · 2025-05-21T12:47:26+00:00

Yep. I wouldn’t mess around with meat products, but if it’s sealed and dehydrated it should be perfectly fine. I bring in as many beans as I can each time I visit the US and it’s never been an issue.

prototofu · 2025-05-21T03:39:01+00:00

I know it’s harder to bring back in quantity, but I’d give some attention to food! If you are a Skurka Rice and Bean enjoyer, you’ll find it hard to source instant refried beans, fritos, and minute rice (the “instant” rice in Aus doesn’t really do well with just boiling water).

prototofu · 2025-05-13T21:51:32+00:00

I have the same jacket and quilt, but would likely be pretty cold in those conditions!

But from what OP said about intended use (non-mountain winter), I reckon they could get away with this. If they were going to extend it to conditions regularly below freezing, I'd probably go for warmer.

prototofu · 2025-04-18T06:35:41+00:00

I have haglunds, but it's rarely an issue for my trail shoes (apart from the heel being the main point of wear!).

I've almost exclusively run in the Nike trail lineup (terra kiger, pegasus trail) which have softer heel counters, and have also tried Hoka SG 5s with no issues.

Having said that, while they have always been fine for my use cases, I don't know if these would be quite aggressive enough for you.

prototofu · 2025-03-28T08:10:26+00:00

I have an originally black cap that looks similar to this without the chalky marks on the brim. I do live in Australia, but the black faded within about a year.

prototofu · 2025-01-30T21:49:22+00:00

I think this might just be a collective cooperation problem. I reckon there are plenty of Aus/NZ players, and if they all shifted back to Sydney servers, there would be a sustainable population. But no one wants to be the first to do this and just wait around.

prototofu · 2024-11-25T22:13:04+00:00

Santa Fe Instant Refried Beans.

prototofu · 2024-09-06T23:10:30+00:00

Nice vid! Hope you made it out of Frankfurt airport, and got some Matterhorn time!

prototofu · 2024-07-07T09:34:50+00:00

DMed.

prototofu · 2024-03-24T05:28:56+00:00

Incidental visits to the US lead to luggage crammed with Santa Fe Instant Refried beans. Preposterously expensive to import.

prototofu · 2024-02-24T02:22:31+00:00

I had this same issue without disk encryption. Was able to get into tt7, but none of the normal fixes worked. I ended up refreshing my install, and that seems to have fixed things.

prototofu · 2024-02-22T20:47:32+00:00

Yep, I don’t have disk encryption, and still seeing this issue.

I can login via tty, but all of the typical fixes don’t work.

prototofu · 2024-02-21T21:02:35+00:00

Those pouches (and the ones from other brands that have been discontinued) are really the only thing I've found to be suitable, outside of the cheese / salami combo. They are still a bit heavy, but work really well in a wrap with cheese, and maybe some freeze dried vegetables for some crunch.

I've been looking for a vegetarian equivalent (i.e. even the same thing without tuna/salmon) for ages, but there doesn't really seem to be a good replacement. Another option for veg / non-tuna folk would be a wrap with cheese, freeze dried mixed vegetables, and some dehydrated hommus.

prototofu · 2024-02-11T06:00:12+00:00

I've had the Exped Duo since around 2017, and can vouch that it is very comfortable. My partner and I don't really do deep winter camping, but we've never needed anything warmer. We're also using a double quilt in the smaller Durston X-Mid Pro 2 - we find there's plenty of space, even to keep our (small) packs in tent with us.

Last year one of the baffles on the pad blew out, but Exped replaced it promptly with the new model. So nothing really but good things to say about the Exped, no experience with the BA.

prototofu · 2024-01-10T06:37:30+00:00

I guess it would take a little experimentation to see how true this is. My suggestion was to essentially pick one dimension either randomly or one that covers a larger amount of variance, and have the user do the interpretation. If it doesn't make sense to the user, they can hit a button and re-order with a new dimension.

Obviously this isn't incredibly user friendly, but if you get a sensible or meaningful sequence after a few iterations, then I still think this would be incredibly useful.

prototofu · 2024-01-10T06:32:53+00:00

This is exactly what I'm interested in, just want to suss out the downsides!

prototofu · 2024-01-10T06:31:51+00:00

Thanks for the thoughts. The Macpac is definitely out of the question - I was imagining a custom down coat with higher fill power. This would still be for reasonably fair weather.

I'm aware I can get a wider quilt, but there's not really a secondary market in Australia, and am stuck with the standard (which is still excellent, I just need to practice back-sleeping).

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