Heather's Exquisite Map of Tassie

She laughed. "Gamblin's just one of me vices. Still up for more poker this evening or are ya sick of losin' to me?"

The group walked together through the dark primordial forest of pine, sassafras and myrtle beech, which transitioned into open eucalypts, allowing stunning views of the craggy mountains each side of the gap. With most of the snow melting or turned to slush by now, and clouds lifting to allow the warm afternoon sun to brighten the landscape, they found Javier resting on a boulder, drying himself out. He joined their crew, and they chatted happily while the sun's rays warmed them.

The campsite included a large hut, and being one of the first groups to reach it, they bagged one of the hut's sleeping platforms rather than use their tents for the night. There was a large communal kitchen area with tables and a coal fired heater in one corner, and from the ceiling hung giant art displays of metalwork gum leaves.

Throughout the afternoon walkers trudged into the hut, looking for somewhere to spread out wet gear in hope it would dry. Tim and Heather hung up their sleeping bags, and they pulled out both their tents to dry over the rail near the hut's entrance.

In the evening the hut was noisy with conversation and laughter. Several groups were playing cards at the tables, and there was at least one game of chess on the go too. Kathy cleaned up at poker, beating all comers, but Heather gave her a run for her money. Being far from civilisation they didn't play for real money, of course, but it was fun for all to watch the two girls getting super competitive with one another.

Sharing the large sleeping platform in close proximity with others meant there was little to no opportunity for sexual shenanigans. Without bothering to hide their new relationship, Heather and Tim shared a quick kiss good night; the type of affectionate kiss a married couple who'd been together for years might share. However, after everyone was in their bags, Anita and Antonio were stifling giggles and fooling around in their conjoined sleeping bags, and Kathy gave them a kick, prompting them to disappear into the darkness, returning fifteen minutes later.

TUESDAY

"I can't believe the weather here," Tim said, staring at the bright blue sky. The temperature was warming up and they'd taken several layers off as they walked through the morning.

"It's glorious, isn't it? Winter would be quite different up here. We'd be post-holing through deep snow."

They arrived at a track junction for their planned side trip to Pine Valley, for which Javier would join them, while their European friends planned to continue down the track to Lake St Clair. They hugged and shook hands, Antonio giving Heather a kiss on the cheek, and said their goodbyes. Kathy gave Tim a big hug, then slipped him a folded playing card. "I'm kinda disappointed, Tim."

"Why's that?"

"I'm not gonna see how yer love story unfolds!"

After their new friends left Tim unfolded the card, revealing the Joker. Scribbled across the top was Kathy's email address and a message: keep me updated about you and Heather! I want to know how it ends. Good luck! XOX

The track wound through the fairy-tale forest of pines and myrtle beech, leading to another hut, deep in the dark valley. Heather and Tim stopped at the hut, while Javier decided to dump his rucksack and climb The Acropolis, another rocky mountain so named for the line of spectacular dolerite columns along its thin spine.

A north-westerly wind was blowing, bringing warm air down from the deserts of central Australia all the way to the highlands of Tasmania and down the sides of the valley. Heather and Tim found a campsite with some sun penetrating the thick forest canopy, where they erected both tents for airing out, then hung other damp items of clothing and sleeping kit on a rope they tied between trees. Lunch was a simple affair of pita bread and cheese, or Vita-Weat and Vegemite, which they ate in the hut, reading the various warning signs informing them about the dangerous nature of the surrounding wilderness. A few friendly hikers, many who'd walked in from Lake St Clair half a day's walk away, chatted with them.

"How's it goin'?" A tall thirtyish year old man with short brown hair asked. "You two doin' the Overland?"

"Yeah, this is our, what, sixth day is it, Heather?"

Heather nodded as she took a bite from her Vita-Weat and Vegimite biscuits. "Yep, it's day six."

The man was gregarious and up for a chat. "So where are you two from? Locals?"

Tim answered for both of them. "Heather's a local, but I'm from Brisbane. How about you."

"We're from Brissie too. Where abouts?"

"Coorparoo at the moment. How 'bout you?"

"No shit! Talitha and me are at Norman Park. Down here on our honeymoon." Talitha was nowhere in sight and likely outside somewhere.

Tim was often surprised how wherever he went in Australia he'd run into people from his part of town. But he got a bigger surprise when Talitha walked in and said, "Tim?"

Tim turned and instantly recognised one of the ICU registrar doctors from his hospital. "Holy shit, Tal! Fancy meeting you here. How funny's this?"

"Of all the places in the world and I still can't escape people from work!" She said with a friendly laugh, then gestured towards her husband. "I see you've met Jason."

The four of them sat around eating lunch, chatting about their journeys. Talitha and Jason arrived shortly before Heather and Tim and were about to head up to the high alpine plateau of lakes and boulders to the west known as the Labyrinth, where they planned to camp overnight.

"If you two want to get up the Acropolis today you'd best leave soon," Jason advised. "You don't want to be coming back down in the dark. You might want to take torches in case."

The walk out of the valley to the Acropolis was some of the steepest terrain they'd walked on during their entire adventure, climbing steeply from the forested valley floor to a heathy ridge-line leading to the rock scramble up the summit crag. The wind and sun were warm, causing them to sweat, but being unencumbered by heavy rucksacks was always liberating, making the heat bearable. As usual Heather was dressed in her white activewear singlet and black shorts, and her bright pink cap upon her head with short pony blond ponytail sticking from the cap's strap. Her figure was athletic and Tim couldn't help agree she certainly did have a nice arse, along with everything else about her!

Like everywhere else they'd been on the track they were not alone up here either, passing several groups or individual hikers who were on their way back down from the summit. People were talkative and cheery out here in the bush, and again most said "Hello", "G'day," or "How's it goin'?" The track climbed steeply to the rocky buttress of the summit ridge, and they passed Javier making his way down, who told them the view was incredible.

And indeed the view was incredible, with vistas to the rugged wilderness all around. To the south lay the dark blue stretch of Lake St Clair, Australia's deepest lake, surrounded by more wilderness and mountains. The southern end of the lake was hidden behind another great mountain, and was where their hike would end. The sky was deep blue and they basked gloriously in the warm late afternoon sun. Tim sat on a boulder, looking to the west, while Heather rock hopped around the Acropolis' serrated knife's edge summit ridge, with its now familiar ubiquitous rock columns, taking photos. The cliffs to the west were a shear drop, maybe two-hundred metres or more, and while generally not scared of heights, Tim felt a little nervous about the precarious nature of their perch.

He closed his eyes, feeling the sun's rays warm his skin, and almost drifted off to sleep when Heather popped stealthily down beside him and kissed him deeply on the mouth. At first he was startled, but quickly kissed back.

"You scared the fuck out of me!" he said when they'd finished sharing the long pash.

She laughed and deftly unclipped his belt. "I'm horny as fuck and I'd like to fuck the fuck out of you. I've checked, no one's coming up the track, so come on." He helped her pull his trousers down, with his bare arse sitting on the warm rock and his hardening cock sticking up like one of the surrounding rock columns. They kept their sunglasses on, for protection of course, and Heather pulled her shorts off, straddling him and kissing him passionately again. "I missed your cock last night."

She reached between her legs, feeling for his member, guiding its swollen head between her flaps, and moved it around to help her juices flow. Clearly she was not quite as horny as she'd let on because Tim felt Heather's scratchy dryness, and let her slowly rub his cock gently over her labia and clitoris while he stroked her arm skin. Lubricated at last, she sank all the way down onto him, and smiled when he moved his hands under her singlet to unclip her sports bra, removing it to firmly cup both of her breasts and they kissed deeply, passionately.

"Ohhh, yeah, that's it," she whispered into his ear. "Ohhh, you turn me on so much. I needed to fuck you so badly."

He pushed aside her singlet strap and kissed her shoulder, noting any skin not encumbered with tattoos was glowing in the late afternoon sun. Heather's legs were around him and she pushed rhythmically off the rock, her juicy cunt working slowly up and down his hardened cock shaft, their sex organs connected completely.

He fondled her nipples and squeezed her breasts, not too hard, but hard enough, and she gasped again. "Ohhh, Tim."

He liked it when she breathed his name during intercourse, and he returned the favour. "Heather, my beautiful. You're amazing."

"Oh, Tim, you are wonderful."

"You're wonderful, Heather. Perfect. A goddess on this mountain peak."

He was buried deep in her, joined in physical passion, but perhaps their hearts and souls were joining too. Their mutual attraction was palpable, and the pleasure from their union was sensational. Helped by the fact they enjoyed one another's company immensely, feelings were bound to grow. But neither Heather nor Tim were ready to admit the full extent of their feelings for one another yet.

High on the mountain they held each other tight, rocking slowly back and forth, and kissing like the lovers they'd become. Perhaps someone on the plateau below might look up and see the lovers as specks on the skyline, but they didn't care. A huge wedge-tailed eagle flew over them, looking for prey, generally ignoring the large two-backed creature moving rhythmically on the rocks.

"Okay, it's getting late," Heather said after a while. "I'm really enjoying you, but we need to hurry if we want to walk back in the light. Please go for it if you're almost there." And he did, kissing Heather hungrily and increasing their rocking. He reached down to her sticky sweaty nub, right above where his cock penetrated her, gently rubbing her clit. She gasped, "Ohhh, ohh, oh, I, think, I'm almost, there, too! Ohh!"

Tim pushed her hips down, and she pulled him up, their bodies close the edge, and a final kiss with mouths open and lips barely touching, gasping and breathing into each other, staring into one another's eyes at short focus, completed the pleasure circuit between them, Tim's pulsating climax pumping cum juice into Heather, setting off her orgasm with a moan. "Ohhhh, Tim!"

Breathing hard, they held each other tight, while the sun was now low on the horizon. She gave him another kiss, before declaring, "It's time to go, lover. Lucky we brought our torches with us."

The scramble off the summit was treacherous in places, but it was light enough to see where they were placing their feet. They briefly stopped on the heathy ridge below the southern tip of the great rocky summit ridge, looking to the west as the few clouds turned orange and red with the setting sun. Impulsively, Tim pulled Heather to him, giving her a gentle, sensuous kiss.

"Oh, Tim," she whispered, holding him tight against her, "what've we started?"

Despite the bright moon over head, it struggled to penetrate the tree canopy and the darkness of the forest of the valley slope was overwhelming. Their torches were only just adequate and they took deliberate care placing their feet on the treacherously steep track, where roots and rocks were lying in wait to trip them. On their arrival back at camp Javier met them near the hut. "Hola, my friends. I thought I might need to organise a search party for you. I'm glad you're back safe. Will you be heading to the Labyrinth tomorrow?"

Tim waved. "Hey, Javier, yep. I think so."

"Excellent, my friends, I'll hopefully see you up there."

Fortunately their gear was dry from the warm north-wester, so they stowed everything they didn't require for sleeping. Later in the evening Heather and Tim sat naked in her tent, facing one another, her legs over his, kissing slowly and exploring each other's bodies with hands and mouths. The moonlight flickering through the tree canopy above illuminated the tent interior in a silvery glow, allowing them to discern each other's features slightly better than a silhouette.

Tim traced Heather's python tattoo, Hector, wrapping around her right thigh resting on his left, and peering up at him from above her knee at his side. He was sure there was a story behind Hector, but it wasn't necessary for now. Heather caressed the tips of her fingers down Tim's abs and kissed him sensually on the neck. They made love in the seated position and later in missionary, slowly and gently, with much kissing, their bodies rocking in rhythm without rush, perhaps for an hour, enjoying feeling of oneness and not even trying to achieve orgasm, before snuggling together, sharing their post-coital glow. The warmish air allowed sleeping bags to remain open and loose, lest it get too warm for their bodies to remain touching. In one another's arms and exhausted they fell into a deep sleep.

WEDNESDAY

Heather and Tim ate their breakfast while watching the sunrise reflecting deep red off cliffs across the valley above the campsite. Soon after, they traversed the steep track out of the western side of Pine Valley to The Labyrinth plateau. Water cascaded down the rocks in little waterfalls here and there, so they took their time, carefully choosing their hand and foot holds, climbing up the slippery boulders.

The plateau was a maze of tarn lakes surrounded by heathy alpine vegetation intermingled with rocky outcrops. Across the valley to the east were the columnar dolerite cliffs of The Acropolis where Heather and Tim made love the previous afternoon, and its adjoining mountain range rose sharply into the sky, casting a shadow over the forest below its great rocky flanks. And to the west craggy mountain after craggy mountain rose from the plateau under a lifting fog, exposing another blue sky, with only a few cottony white clouds drifting low overhead. Tim and Heather threaded their way past lakes and over boulders, avoiding treading on the tiny wildflowers growing in patches here and there, and taking in the scenery at the same time.

"It's bloody gorgeous," Tim said, snapping a photo.

Heather gave him a grin. "You're bloody gorgeous."

He poked his tongue out and lifted the camera, taking a photo of her grinning face. They found a rock by a large tarn and sat there eating a muesli bar each, watching a waterbird wading in the shallows. Tim gazed at the great wall-like cliff rising from its talus slope above the plateau immediately across the lake to their west. "I wonder where Talitha and Jason camped last night."

"Dunno, but it must have been nice up here on their own. Funny how you met someone from your work out here. But then again, I've travelled a bit and have run into people I know too. It always surprises me, but it happens enough that perhaps I shouldn't be surprised. Though, it's fairly common down here in Tas to run into people I know. I've even arrested someone I went to school with."

"Fair dinkum?" Tim said. "I do love how friendly everyone is out here in the wilderness. Almost everyone say's hello. It's fantastic."

"I guess it's a function of getting out of the city. People aren't as self-focused here in the bush I s'pose. Perhaps cos there's not many people around so they're actually happy to see other humans."

"Speaking of other people, I wonder where Javier went. I thought we'd have run into him by now."

"Maybe he's up one of the mountains?"

They explored the area for a couple of hours, running into three other people, but not Javier. Or Talitha and Jason for that matter. It was early in the afternoon when they retraced their steps to find the track back into the valley.

"G'day," a voice called out from behind them. It was Jason with Talitha, having camped the night on the nearby Walled Mountain; the same crag across the tarn from where Heather and Tim had sat earlier. The quartet made their way back together, with Talitha and Tim discussing work at the hospital, and so Heather and Jason walked ahead, chatting about this and that.

Talitha gave Tim a smile. "I thought you were with a Kiwi girl. Didn't you go over there a few times to see her? I didn't realise you were dating someone new."

Tim chuckled. "Abi and I split up about six months back. She went back to the land of the long white cloud and we tried to keep our relationship alive, but she didn't want to do the long distance thing. Heather's, ah, well, she's not really my girlfriend. Well, I'm not sure, we haven't talked too deeply about it. She's my house mate's sister and I took his spot on this hike when he broke his leg."

"Ooh, a lucky break for you. But you sound unsure of your status with her."

"Yeah, nah, let's just say when two people journey together they bond."

Talitha laughed. "Tell me about it. I met Jason on a bus in South Africa. Being the only Aussies we started chatting and of course we ended up together within a few days."

"Yeah, well, Heather lives down here so I'm not sure how things will go once we're finished our walk."

"Mmm, sounds familiar. I'm originally from Melbourne and Jase's Brisbane, and when we came back from the South African holiday we did the long distance thing for two years before I was able to join him when I was finally offered the training position at our hospital. Those two years were very hard but we both wanted it to work."

They noticed Heather begin to jog ahead and Jason turned to Talitha. "Hey, Tal, looks like someone might be injured ahead."

Tim snapped out of his thoughts of potentially starting a long distance relationship with Heather and looked past Jason, who'd also increased his pace to a jog despite the heavy rucksack on his back. Up ahead he could see a man crouching over someone on the ground, while a woman was standing and holding a jacket over them, apparently shading them from the sun. Talitha and Tim broke into a jog behind their companions, and by the time they reached the little gathering Heather was preparing to apply a crepe bandage to the right arm of the person on the rocky ground. It was Javier and the look on his face and sweat pouring out of him suggested he was not in a good way.

"Javier, I want you to listen to me," Heather said in a calm voice. "You'll be fine if you keep as still as possible. Hey, Tim, can you carefully remove the ring from his right hand please." It was a calmly given order, not a request and Tim did as he was commanded. As he did, Tim noted two small punctures ringed by angry red skin on Javier's thenar eminence, the fat muscles at the base of his thumb.

Oh shit, thought Tim. Snake bite! That's why I needed to remove his ring, in case his fingers swell. And to happen all the way out here in the wilderness. He watched Heather bandage Javier's hand with complete professionalism, wrapping his arm with reasonable pressure all the way to his elbow. Javier looked sick, as did the young man and the woman who were already with him. The woman, who seemed young to Tim, perhaps in her late teens or early twenties, was indeed using her jacket to shield Javier from the sun. Talitha crouched next to Heather and they whispered an exchange, then stood and turned to Jason, whispering, "Snake bite."