Our Hiking Blog

Frank is back from a great trip across the Overland Track from Cradle Mountain and Lake St Clair in one of Tasmania’s World Heritage National Parks.

On this trip he walked with a small group from north of Sydney in Australia.  We met via Our Hiking Blog and because Frank had some spare time and needed to do the trip before we release an updated version of our eBook, How to Hike the Overland Track.

As an aside, we try and walk the track each year to keep the book as up to date as possible. (plus it is was a great excuse to bushwalk this beautiful part of the world again)

Rather than do a detailed trip report, …

Hiking the Overland Track in winter from south to north?

What are conditions like on the Cradle Mountain to Lake St Clair hike when there has been a lot of snow?
Home dried bircher muesli for breakfast (thanks for this idea Frank!)… mmm… good… but don’t overdo the water next time, and don’t forget to add the home dried strawberries carried all this way!

It had snowed heavily again all night and there was now an even deeper layer of fresh snow on everything. But the cloud appeared to be thinning out and it looked like it was going to be a nice day with some indistinct glimpses of the DuCane Range through the cloud to the west. Before leaving the architectural marvel that is Bert Nichols Hut, Heidi decided that she’d better try out the snow shoes in a controlled environment rather than trying to figure it out with cold fingers on rough terrain. So she spent a few minutes parading around the square flat patch of snow in the plain behind the hut which covered the helicopter pad. Satisfied with how to attach, remove and use the snow shoes, we strapped them back onto the pack and set out.

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You know the story. Up at 4am to get to the start of the track. You have raced around for three days getting food organised, gear checked and packed , pets and kids palmed off to family or friends, just so you can escape for a couple of nights of solitude and reconnection with wilderness.

The traffic is great at that time of the day and you arrive in good time. Your packs are heavy but you know it is worth it to get to your special place, your secret camping spot.

As you arrive near camp, strolling over the last hill you look down to a scene like this:

Koji has kindly agreed to share some photographs of a platypus he caught in the wild in Tasmania last week. Platypus sightings are quite rare and we have never seen one in this busy day tripper area.

Over to Koji:
My wife, her uncle and I went to Cradle on Friday for bushwalking and stayed at Scout Hut near Crater Lake. On the way back to Ronny Creek carpark on Saturday, about noon we walked past other hikers and they said to us they saw a platypus in a little creek along the boardwalk so we kept en eye out for that.

As we approached the place we saw the platypus swimming along a creek.