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The Overland
Track
Ronit and I just finished a little walk. It is called
the Overland Track. And it was hard.
The first thing you need to know about the overland track can be described
best by John Chapman, who wrote a book on hiking in that region of
Tasmania.
The book, borrowed from Ronit's roommate in Sydney,
helped us prepare for what we were going to see and do. John writes,
"The climate of Western Tasmania can be
summed up in one word - wet." Apparently, according to John, strong
Westerly winds traveling from South
America pick up a large load of water traveling across the
Atlantic. When they reach the mountains of Western
Tasmania, they can't help but drop their load. Annual Rainfall
in the Cradle
Mountain
region can reach up to 3000 mm a year, with December being a mild month,
with an average of about 300 mm.
So it was, we arrived on a rainy Thursday morning, and started our walk
from just north of Dove
Lake.
Part of the track is on raised wooden platforms. At first, we were a
little bummed that the entire track was going to be on a raised platform,
and sort of felt cheated that our feet wouldn't get to "feel the
earth." The feeling quickly dissipated, as we realized there were
only a couple of sections of raised wood. Most of the Overland Track
is on rugged terrain. There is only a very small percentage of time
you are actually walking on just plain dirt. Most of the time you are
walking on rocks, tree roots, rotten, uneven wooden planks, or mud,
thus a new pair of hiking boots will now need to be purchased. Each
step must be calculated with the utmost precision, and thus takes not
only time, but also thought to move forward kilometer after kilometer.
Thus, we ended up praying for the raised wooden planks, to give our
weary feet a rest from the trauma of jagged rocks. Every time we would
come to these sections, we would yell out in pleasure, "We have
achieved wood!"
Our first day was just as John had described it would be. Fortunately,
I had the foresight at the Visitor's Centre to buy a rain jacket/windbreaker.
We hiked up, up and up that first morning, the entire mountain covered
in thick fog and a steady rain that pelted our hats. At one point, I
asked Ronit what planet we were on. The eerie fog and low cut vegetation
did not feel remotely close to the warm beaches of Sydney
we had been on two days earlier. We skipped summating
Cradle
Mountain because it was dangerous
in the wet and we wouldn't be able to see anything from the top. So
we trudged on towards our first night's stay at the Waterfall Valley
Hut.
Every now and again on the Overland Track there are
huts for the hikers to stay. Some huts hold 8 people, while some can
sleep up to 60. Most huts have wooden platforms to pitch tents on and
all of them have a self-composting bathroom and water tanks filled by
the plentiful rain. We spent each night in or near one of these huts,
and they were actually very pleasant. All of the company was delightful
and there was more than one game of Hot Dice played. Most of the huts
will host a slew of Bennett's Wallabies, cute little animals so trusting
that they will walk right up to you and not even flinch.
The second day was certainly our hardest. We had some rain in the morning,
and some in the late afternoon, but for the most part, the weather the
second day was cloudy and cool. We got an early start and made the first
7.75km portion of day in relative ease and good spirits. We weren't
ready to stop yet, and we know the next hut was quite a ways down the
path, so we hiked a little longer and made our lunch. After lunch, we
hit a dense rainforest, and each step through the muddy track took time
to execute. Trying to stay as dry and clean as possible, while carrying
a 40-pound pack was not an easy task, and the last few kilometers took
us a while. This is also where I picked up a little bite from a leach.
It had let go of my ankle and the only evidence was a bloody sock and
the wound, which doesn't heal due to an anti-coagulant in the leach's
bite. There wasn't too much altitude gained on the day, but the distance
was exhausting. All in all from the Waterfall Valley Hut to the New
Pelion Hut, it was 24km or about 14 miles.
Tired and weary, we set out the next morning for Mt Ossa, at 1617 meters
the tallest peak in Tasmania.
At the base of the mountain, you can leave you heavy packs, and head
straight up. Without the 40 pound burden, the walking was easy and,
despite some tricky bouldering at the snow capped top, our walk up went
smoothly. The views from the top were amazing and well worth the 3 hour
detour. After heading down, we made it past the normal resting area
of Ki Ora Hut and headed to Du Cane Hut to do some camping.
The fourth day the weather was fine, and we took a small detour to see
the Fergusson
Falls,
a heavy flowing waterfall about 15 minutes off the track. Then we jetted
down a fairly flat path past Windy Ridge Hut and through an old Eucalypt
Forrest. Now, I haven't yet mentioned snakes, but every snake in Tassie
is poisonous. Along the path, there were millions of small branches
of varying size, all from dead tress. I stepped carefully now that the
weather had warmed up a bit, because each of those sticks could actually
move and turn out not to be a stick at all. But we came through the
forest unscathed, and reached a march with "extended sections of
raised wood" according to John. Here, as we sped along the path,
was the only time on our hike that we did see a snake. It was just off
the side of the path and scurried into the bush as we approached. It
was a Copperhead, about a meter long with a thick black body. We didn't
see very much of him, and that was about as exciting as the wild life
got.
We then crossed a suspension bridge and were one km away from our destination,
the Narcissus Hut, where we could catch a Ferry to the Lake St Claire
visitors centre. The afternoon Ferry was full, but because there were
6 people that still wanted to make the trip across the lake, the ferry
came back to pick us up. Thus, we bypassed the tedious walk around the
lake that would have taken us 5 hours. The journey across by boat only
took 30 minutes.
At the visitor's center, we were treated with a soft bed a hot shower
and a delicious meal that we didn't have to cook or clean up. And of
course, a large beer. Thus we finished the Overland Track in 4 days,
a hike that most people do in 5. I hope I haven't sounded like I was
complaining in the least, because the journey was worth it, 100 times
over. The scenery was just gorgeous, the views stellar, and the memories
beautiful as the land.
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