Inn-to-inn walking · Irish Town · since 2010
Five routes, six walkers, every day published
You will know the distance, the ascent and the honest hours for every day of every route before you pay a deposit. Your bag goes ahead in the van; you walk with a day pack and sleep in a bed.
The routes
Each day, drawn to scale
Bar height is the day's ascent, width is its distance. A short day with a thousand metres of climb is harder than a long flat one, and the strip shows you which is which.
The Blue Mountain Ridge
The whole ridge in five days, including the Peak before dawn on day four.
$1,450per person, 5 nights
Cloud forest and coffee
Four days through the cloud forest and the coffee estates, with the botanic garden at Cinchona.
$1,150per person, 4 nights
Waterfalls and rivers
Three days along the rivers on the Portland side, swimming most afternoons.
$980per person, 3 nights
The long traverse
Six days across the range from Mavis Bank to Portland. The hardest thing we do.
$1,780per person, 6 nights
Three days, gently
Three short days for a first mountain walk, or for walkers who want the afternoons free.
$760per person, 3 nights
Departures and places left
A day on the hill
Breakfast at seven, tea at four
We start early because the cloud comes up after eleven and the views go. You walk at your own pace with a guide at the front and the map in your hand; nobody is ever left at the back on their own.
Lunch is bread, cheese, fruit and something from the inn's kitchen, eaten sitting on a rock. Tea is at the next inn, and the bags are already there.
Walkers
What they said afterwards
They published the day table before I paid anything, so I knew exactly what day two was. It was exactly that.
They talked me out of the traverse and into the three-day route. They were right and I went back for the Ridge a year later.
Swimming at the end of every day and our bags waiting at the cabin. We have booked the coffee route for February.
Honestly
Who these are not for
We would rather turn you away than have you miserable on day two, so here is the plain version.
Not for you if
- Eight miles with 900 metres of climb sounds unpleasant
- You need a lie-in past seven
- You want a bus to meet you at lunchtime
- You cannot walk on wet rock with poles
Fine if
- You walk three or four hours at home without fuss
- You are sixty-eight and did the Ridge last year, like two of our regulars
- You are slow; we plan the hours around the slowest walker
Tell us if
- Your knees object to descents
- You are on medication that matters at altitude
- You would rather have your own room; we can usually arrange it