This trail was on our bucket list for a long time and it was a thrill to finally get out there. My husband Farris and I tackled this one together under our team name: Jazz. (His nickname is Fazz + Jess... you get it.) Below is a basic map of the trail that I made into a t-shirt for the two of us as I didn't love the souvenir options available at the end of the trail (sorry Parks Tasmania).
Trail Overview
Registration
It can be a bit of a pain registering to do the Overland Track because numbers are capped and every other hiker wants to be out there. But for the cost of a parks pass, plus a $200 registration fee, this hike is an absolute steal.
Track Crowding:
The facilities and track conditions are incredibly good and I could easily justify paying a lot more for the experience. Each day 34 hikers are set loose but we found that we walked alone most of the time, and it didn't feel like there were a lot of people out there. We only really saw people when we hit the huts at the end of each day and you have the option to camp on platforms (more solitary) or sleep in the huts each night (very social).
Huts versus Campsites
We initially planned on camping the whole way... but that was before we saw the huts. They were amazing. We ended up loving the convenience and the camaraderie fostered in the environment of the camp kitchen, gorgeous decked areas, and comfortable sleeping areas. But without further ado – here's how our time on the Overland Track went!
Day One: Stride - Climb - Scoot - Plod
Hike Stats: 13.7km (map) / 16.1km (Garmin). 21K steps. 190 floors of elevation
Day highlights: Marion's Lookout, and Cradle Mountain summit
Morning tea on Cradle Mountain
After catching the earliest possible shuttle bus from the Visitor Centre, we set off at 8.30am, raring to go. It wasn't long before the incline started – this is generally considered the toughest day on the OT. Fair enough too, it was a lot of serious uphill and it hit early.
We enjoyed a break at Marion's Lookout and arrived at the Cradle Mountain junction about 1pm. The Cradle Summit is an optional side-trip and most people on it were day-trippers. We decided to give it a go as the weather was so clear - and hey, maybe we only come here once - who knows?
Some mountains have a way of keeping your confidence in check and Cradle Mountain was certainly that for us. It's rated a grade 4 ascent with rock scrambling required. The only rock scrambling I've previously done has been very tame - extremely unlike this. There were many places where the rock to be climbed was taller than me and minimal handholds required losing your centre of gravity and trusting that adrenaline could pull you through. It was tough and my upper body muscles began to protest immediately.
We toughed it out over the three false summits until there was just us and about 4m of rock before the actual summit. But that was our limit. The rock here was vertical. A day-tripper with a 6-pack was struggling. And my adrenaline was 100% expired. It was super high and if you fell, you weren't getting back up again. We were incredibly proud of the height we achieved and had a tea break with an excellent view before a very slow and shaky descent.
The wobbles and nerves got to me on this challenge and I was extremely relieved to reach the bottom again. Teamwork got me up there (thanks Fazz for all the leg ups) but grit got me down... along with a lot of butt scooting and maintaining as many points of contact as humanly possible. This side trip took us a whopping 5 hours (double the duration that the signs from Parks Tasmania advised – oops!).
Hoping the rest of the trip involved more actual hiking we picked up our packs again and carried on towards Waterfalls Hut. 3.5 hours later we descended through a gorgeous rainforest and emerged at a surprisingly modern hut. Home for the night.
Definitely humbled by the challenges of the day and nervous about what was to come. A lot of fellow trekkers who took on Cradle ran out of water by lunchtime so if you're planning on a similar attempt, make sure you take more than you anticipate needing.
Day Two: Over before you know it
Hike Stats: 7.8km (map) / 9.9km (Garmin). 13K steps. 38 floors of elevation
Day highlights: Seeing joeys, and meeting fellow hikers
Buttongrass plain on day two
Despite planning to leave early we unfortunately chose a room in the hut with an experienced snorer and ended up sleeping in just to get some rest. We headed off at 8.30am after a good breakfast and a readjustment of how our packs were organised. Feeling slightly better aligned than the day before we set a good pace and arrived at the Lake Will junction around 10am. This was the only side-trip of the day but after yesterdays colossal effort we decided to skip it and push on.
It was a very hot day with minimal shade and despite the minimal hills we were both feeling tired. We saw a few wallabies today and a couple of joeys which were teeny tiny and very cute. First animals of the trek so far! We rolled into Windermere Hut at 11.40am, which means we'd walked for just over 3 hours including a 10min break at the Lake Will junction.
The afternoon was lazy and just what we needed. We met a few of the other hikers, swapped hiking stories and did some stretching. After enjoying sunset and cooking dinner we had another early night. So far, so good.
Day Three: Day of Tree Roots and "the Incident"
Trail Stats: 16.8km (map) / 17.3km (Garmin). 23K steps. 90 floors of elevation
Day Highlights: Forth Valley Lookout, Buttongrass plain @ New Pelion & River ramble
Forth Valley Plateau
Reluctant to hike in the heat again, we rose early. We had a moonlit breakfast inside the hut (it was magical), packed our gear and were off by 6.10am.
The start of the hike today was through Forth Valley. It was early and we were surrounded by fog. I half expected an Ent to lean down and start talking to us (LOTR reference - there'll be a lot of these, just warning you). It was mystical and cool and we loved it.
We arrived at the Forth Valley Lookout around 7.30am and unsurprisingly it was a complete fog fest - no view at all. Ah well - the early bird gets the fairy floss of webs in their face and no views either. You win some you lose some. We settled down for a snack anyway. And lucky we did because in the twenty minutes we sat there we watched the fog lift and a valley appear before us. It was something we will never forget - a live movie for an audience of two.
After the beautiful plateau, we entered a rainforest and got hit with some serious tree roots underfoot. They were intense and it wasn't long before my feet were burning. This beautiful forest was also the location of 'the incident'. Fazz, being generous as the lead walker held a large fern aside so that I could pass through, but, something compelled him to let it go right as I was level with it. It smacked me hard across the face but all I registered was his look of shock as he looked at his empty hand and back at me clutching my face - precisely the situation that he had tried to avoid! Perhaps it was because we were starved of other entertainment but we both lost it and laughed ourselves silly for a good five minutes.
After a total of 6 hours and 40 minutes on the trail, we arrived at the New Pelion Hut. We treated ourselves to a bonus hot lunch today and cooled off in a nearby river. The view from this hut was phenomenal and we could have sat on the balcony drinking it in for days.
There were plenty of wombats were shuffling around this camp and the evening was punctuated by excited exclamations when another one was spotted. Vibes were positive all round. Finally - you guessed it - another early night on the Overland Track.
Day Four: Day of Mountains
Trail Stats: 16.6km (map) / 16.6km (Garmin). 21K steps. 275 floors of elevation
Day Highlights: Mount Ossa, and the gardens on top of Mount Doris
View from the top of Mount Ossa
6am start today and the hiking was brutal from the get-go. The first 2.5 hours were straight up a forest hill with gnarly tree roots the whole way. It was reminiscent of day one and a sharp reminder not to get too comfortable!
We were the first hikers of the day again so we had the honour of collecting all the cobwebs for everyone. But, it also meant that we arrived at Pelion Gap while the fog was still settled on the plain – and it was a sight to behold. It was incredible rising up out of the rainforest to find ourselves on a blossom-covered plateau that stretched for miles. Perfect spot for some morning tea and additional sunscreen (Yep, even at 8.30am it was getting HOT).
We started our ascent up Mt Doris, en route to Ossa at 8.40am. The garden on top was like arriving in Hobbiton (LOTR again, sorry-not-sorry). Think cute moss circles, sandstone pathways and flowers...everywhere. It was so unexpected.
Continuing on, we tackled the rock scrambling like seasoned pros (it was, admittedly, much easier than Cradle Mountain) and arrived at the Mount Ossa summit at 11.05, taking just under 2.5hrs to get up. But we made it – tallest mountain in Tasmania officially conquered! As you'd expect the view was breathtaking. I enjoyed the tiny lake up there (also the highest in Tassie!) although it was probably considered more of a puddle.
I had a great time rock scrambling down the boulders this time. It was less scary when you weren't faced with a sheer drop. There was a moment of panic when we heard a few rocks fall on the other other side of one of the false summits, but thankfully everyone over there was okay. Not many hikers made the attempt today and we felt proud to have tackled it and returned triumphant.
After returning to Pelion Gap for our packs we had another 90-minute hike to reach the next camp, and it was long and hot. While it was mostly downhill a lot of the 'steps' or places to step were enormous. It would have taken me double the time without Fazz lending a hand. I've never been so grateful for hiking poles as I was today. They took a lot of the impact out of the trail.
We loved our night at Kia Ora Hut. We had a double dinner ration and spent the evening gasbagging with our fellow hikers (Joanna, Ash, Antoine, Julie – thanks for a ripper evening!) We got a navigation lesson from another hiker who has done the Overland over 27 times! That was really special and I have to make sure I keep practicing what I learnt. We got carried away talking and went to bed late for once... at a shocking 9.30pm!
Day Five: Day of Waterfalls & Nope Ropes
Trail Stats: 12.1km (map) / 13.4km (Garmin). 18K steps. 152 floors of elevation
Day Highlights: Drinking from Hartnett Falls, and seeing the Du Cane Hut
Beautiful rainforest protecting us from the sun
After our late night we trundled off a bit slower today at a leisurely 7.20am. We arrived at the oldest hut on the trail - the Du Cane Hut - after an hour and loved pottering around in it. It looked like it belonged in the Hansel and Gretel fairytale. Loved that. Today worked out as a really relaxed one for us. Every hour we arrived at something cool to look out and we didn't notice the time passing at all.
We saw three waterfalls - Fergusson, D'Alton and Hartnett. Despite being classed as 'easy' side trips they were bloody hard. We basically just committed to hiking three mini-mountains, but it was worth it. The mosquitos in the forest today were very hungry so our rest stops were less than relaxing and all got cut short as it felt like we were the food!
After the forest section, we hit a nice patch of open sun and finally started seeing the infamous snakes of the Overland Track. As expected they were more scared of us than we of them and mostly stayed out of our way so that was fine.
We arrived at the Burt Nicholls Hut around 1.45pm, thoroughly hot and bothered. After setting up our gear in a room we headed outside and did some stretching on a wide section of decking in full sun. Our afternoon was spent chatting to other hikers as they rolled into camp and solidifying our plans for our final couple of days on the trail. Dinner involved a lot of food sampling as people tried to offload extra bag weight towards the end of their trek – definite bonus for us!
Sleeping platforms were one solid bench tonight and we had the same crew in with us as most nights previously. It was like being on school camp and after lots of giggles, and more than a few suspicious bean-induced aromas, eventually we all got some sleep.
Day Six: We thought it would be flatter than this
Trail Stats: 15km (map) / 14.8km (Garmin). 20K steps. 175 floors of elevation
Day Highlights: Suspension Bridges, Parthenon plateau, Pine Valley
View from the Parthenon Plateau
The walk from Burt Nicholls to Narcissus is listed as being essentially flat. The worst is over, incline-wise, so we thought we had a cruisy day ahead. Boy, were we wrong! It was 'trending flat' which essentially meant that it was constantly up and down for an average of flat. Cue eye roll. Dammit hey!
We were up at 5am and after a last brekky with our new hiking mates we wished them well and headed off at 6.40am bound for Pine Valley – one of the optional side trips.
We arrived at the Pine Valley junction at 8.25am thoroughly disheartened by how difficult we'd found the walk so far. We continued on without a break, hoping to reach PV relatively early. We hit a few surprise suspension bridges, which were a bit of fun. Pine Valley itself was beautiful and easily the most lush green rainforest so far, with the track winding alongside the river. We arrived at the hut at 10.20am.
The hut itself was super cute and tiny – just 4 platforms to sleep on that were like the Burt Nicholls setup, and a kitchen area in the same room. We hung up our food bags away from the mice and set our tent up outside.
Somewhat optimistically, we headed off to hike up to the Labyrinth at 11.30am. It was super hot today but we had a lot of water and figured 3/4 of the hike was in rainforest anyway. It turned out to be a massive slog. It was humid and extremely steep. It was also far less maintained than the main Overland Track and every step was like passing through a carwash with ferns and branches smacking you in the face. At one point we had a 20m climb up a waterfall. I was more than relieved that it had been a dry week with no rain or that may have stopped us in our tracks.
We hit the Parthenon Plateau at 1pm and were absolutely spent. We wandered around up there for about twenty minutes before settling ourselves on a nice rock and enjoying a 40min lunch surrounded by mountain tops. It was very cool.
The Labyrinth itself meanders on for another few hours, but we were exhausted. The peak time to visit this area is when it's been raining – and ideally around ANZAC day when the deciduous beech is turning red. We committed to returning one day to see it properly in its prime and enjoyed the area we reached.
It was much easier descending but it still took us 90 minutes. We were both super keen for dinner and had a very early one at 4.30pm, which was quite funny. It still hadn't rained for our entire trip, which is abnormal (though we weren't complaining!).
But as we sat in the hut finishing our dinner we heard a light patter on the roof. No way?! It was raining. Ever so slightly, but technically it was raining. The one night we set up our tent and I had socks out drying in the sun - it rained.
This quote by Dave Barry immediately came to mind:
"It always rain on tents. Rainstorms will travel thousands of miles, against prevailing winds for the opportunity to rain on a tent."
It lasted all of five minutes but at least it rained. We crawled into bed super early at 6pm. I enjoyed the first half of a book I'd bought - but not touched - and felt relieved that I'd finally found an appropriate window of time to enjoy it in.
Day Seven: "Yeah the breeze"
Trail Stats: 12km (map) / 14.2km (Garmin). 19K steps. 78 floors of elevation
Day Highlights: Views of Mt. Olympus, getting 'lost', Ferry to the finish
Last buttongrass plain
Bittersweet day today. We packed up our gear and set off for a morning warm-up walk to the supposedly close-by Cephissus Falls. We overshot massively, completely missed it, and accidentally walked halfway up the Acropolis before realising that we were 40-minutes into a 20-minute return walk. The fatigue was real my friends.
Feeling like morons we backtracked and followed our ears until, sure enough, within 10-minutes-walk of our camp, we came across the falls. Given it took us so bloody long to find them, we justified spending twenty minutes exploring them before heading back.
We left Pine Valley at 9.10am hoping to still beat most of the heat as we were expecting a 30-degree day. The rainforest was gorgeous in the morning light, and we relished all our favourite details of the buttongrass plain as we passed. We hit the Pine Valley junction at 10.50am and had a 20min snack break.
Continuing on, we enjoyed the spectacular views of Mt Olympus after crossing the Narcissus River suspension bridge. It was another snake-fest today with just as many rustling along in the bushes beside us as we spotted on the track ahead.
We arrived at Narcissus Hut at 12.40pm and continued on to the jetty after confirming our ferry pick-up via radio. Unfortunately the boat wasn't due until 3.30pm, but there was shade sail, benches, beautiful views, and the narcissus river to enjoy. We were more than happy to relax for awhile.
Arriving on the shores of Lake St. Clair we made our way up to to the trail head, took the photo at the finish, and questioned why we hadn't planned more days. We felt strong and fit and wanted to keep going.
Muscle soreness was minimal – it was just a few pesky blisters for both of us and a persistent heat rash on my ankles – otherwise we were in good shape physically. Our biggest concern at this point was sourcing hot food, and lots of it!
We downed the bags and in tribute to our new hiking bud Joanna, got two ice-cold lemonades and congratulated ourselves on a week well-hiked.
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