Welcome
HM Travels

Roughly heart-shaped, Tasmania lies just south of Australia’s eastern coast — a rugged, green island known for wild weather, deep forests, and some of the country’s most rewarding hikes. I had heard about the Overland Track for years and finally decided to walk it in the middle of the Tasmanian summer. Knowing that permits for the Overland Track are tightly limited, I checked the Tasmania Parks website and discovered that there was exactly one permit left for December — for a

Today was supposed to be an easier day, but it was made more difficult because yesterday we only made it to Templeton one while we were supposed to walk approximately two more hours further to Templeton two campsite. So the day started at 5 AM with a wake up call. Things were a little off for me today. After packing the tent, and letting the porter Jackson take it, I discovered that I was missing my eyeglasses. I kept the eyeglasses usually in the tent pocket and that’s wher

Today was supposed to be the longest, hardest of the 8 day trek. We were woken up at 4:30 AM and had to hit the trail by 5:30 AM with the expectation of reaching camp by 7 PM. My solar battery was completely drained and I was hoping for a sunshiny day. Getting ready is a chore. It almost takes one hour. The method I use is to take out the snacks for the day and put it in the front pocket of my day pack. The water purification tablets go in the front pocket of my shirt. The t

To a beautiful moonlight, I woke up at 4 AM and got ready for the day. It was supposed to be a long and challenging day with two long climbs. Breakfast was at 5 AM and everybody started filing around with their tent packed and ready to leave by 5:30 AM. The moon was full and bright. A local villager hut was playing a popular Tina Turner song at high volume as we started the hike. As the sun was not out yet and it was dark we walked briskly and in a couple of hours reached a v

We all got a wake up call at 5 AM by the chef and soon we were at the breakfast hut for breakfast. Some of the Aussie friends had delicious breakfast items to share including quinoa puff cereal, and satchels of gourmet espresso coffee. After hanging out for an hour, and wishing Hector a happy birthday, we all started the trek, but not before taking a group photo with the beautiful rainforest background. The porters walking next to us keep making jokes amongst themselves and

Thank God there was no rain last night. We woke up at 5AM and were served a breakfast of cereal, baked beans and coffee. There were crispbreads, honey, jam, and assorted crackers available too. People repacked and shed extra things they had brought. Hector was abandoning about half a kilogram of almonds and goji berries. That seemed such a waste, so I took it off of him. My pack was not that heavy. Every rest break and tea break we got during the day, I got a kick out of off

Early morning on June 4, the whole team of 12 trekkers met for breakfast, seven Australians were in a group headed by Hector who was their personal health and life coach. An ex-military Chilean person, he was as big as Arnold Schwarzenegger and I learned later that he had met Arnold in person. Two others were also from Australia, one from New Zealand, one from Dubai and myself. After a hearty breakfast, we loaded our backpacks and day packs in the transport bus, handed over o

Several months ago, some loud aircraft flew over my home city, prompting discussions on Nextdoor on what these planes might be. Someone posted the website info of ADSB Exchange which shows all planes at any place at any moment, plane's trajectory and origin. Being a flight enthusiast and a private pilot, I played with the website and discovered many things. Soon I was checking the regions near Fiji, where I had visited recently, and checked Indonesia & Papua New Guinea. Goin

The iconic harbor bridge of Sydney Harbour has always looked so beautiful in pictures. Today when I landed in Sydney, I discovered that there was a ticket I could buy to go climb it. It is illegal to climb the Harbor Bridge and so you always have to go with the company named BridgeClimb. For the privilege, you get to pay them 347 Australian dollars. It is a good thing that US dollar is pretty strong so the pain is not that much compared to my last visit. Last time, there was