Conqueror of the Mountains of Australia in General and South East Queensland in Particular: Overland Track Day 1

Date: 14th December, 2011

Distance: 10.4 km

Time: 5 h 40 min

Side trip: Cradle Mountain (partial) ~2 km, 1 h 20 min

Total: ~12.4 km, 7 h

Geared up for our first Tasmanian adventure, Emily and I kicked off our 8-day trek along the Overland Track from Ronnie Creek car park around lunch time. Traditionally the weather in the northern section of the national park is overcast/wet (apparently there's a less than 10% chance of a clear day year round) but we managed to pluck out fine weather for day 1. We counted ourselves particularly lucky, as this was our first time walking in an alpine area and some of the best mountain views of the entire walk are along this section.

I was actually a bit underwhelmed on the drive into the park. It looked too dry, almost desertly in its featurelessness, for a world-famous national park renowned for glorious flora and fauna of all colours and varieties, and it was damn well hot enough to feel like QLD in early Summer.

It wasn't long before I was swayed away from those thoughts. We had no more than rounded the first bend before our first encounter with a wombat. These guys might be everywhere in Tassie, but we'd never seen one in the wild before.

After about 50 minutes of walking through the hot, exposed valley, and then alongside a forested creek past pretty little Crater Falls, the track spat us out at the northern edge of Crater Lake at a boat shed. The water in the lake is clear and reflections of the colourful lake walls made this the first of many highlights on the Overland Track.

Serene reflections in Crater Lake

Stopping for a break at the boat shed, we became wary of a currawong who had made his way over to see us, having heard they are clever enough even to unzip hiking bags to get at food.

Wily currawong on the lookout for some human food

Circling Crater Lake

Up ahead we could see etched into the mountain the path leading to Marion's Lookout. The final haul is fairly steep including a bit of a rocky scramble, but with chains for assistance. We had been pre-warned that this would be the most difficult part of the entire Overland Track, but, even with our heavy packs, we didn't find it too tough. Maybe in rough weather it could get a bit more tricky.

Marion's Lookout, up ahead

Beautiful Crater Lake

View back down the valley from near Marion's Lookout

Dove Lake and the iconic spine of Cradle Mountain peering over the rock at Marion's Lookout

The views from Marion's Lookout were superb. We traced the path we'd taken so far, coming up from Ronnie's Creek. The elevation gain to here was about 300 m, but the remainder of today's walk would be flat and high up in glorious alpine country as we crossed Cradle Plateau.

Cradle Mountain and Barn's Bluff come into view

Emily chilling outside Kitchen Hut

Well, except for the side trip to Cradle Mountain. Kitchen Hut was a convenient drop off point for our packs before tackling the trail to Tassie's 6th highest mountain, at 1,545 m. The terrain is rough and rocky underfoot, but without our heavy packs we were zooming on up.

Cradle Mountain from Kitchen Hut

Negotiating the rocky track up Cradle Mountain

Not far from the first 'false peak' at the summit ridge, the boulders became incredibly large, like a giant from some bygone era had tossed them there. This was totally unlike anything we'd encountered in QLD, and the height coupled with the boulders became too much for Emily so we took a few shots and turned back.

Rocky boulder field where we turned around

Grand view of the Overland Track crossing Cradle Plateau, from Cradle Mountain

Over the next 1.5 hours we contoured around the base of Cradle Mountain, which offered some interesting new perspectives on this rugged peak in the afternoon light. Barn's Bluff reared its bluffy head up ahead over the plateau and valleys below. We also stumbled into our first patch of famous Tasmanian mud, much to Emily's delight.

At the junction with the Lake Rodway Track to Scott Kilvert Hut, we spied another rare native.

This echidna greeted us at the track junction

This time, the sign told us true that it was only another hour to our first campsite. Passing on the opportunity to summit Barn's Bluff we followed the steep downhill track to Waterfall Valley Hut, lying deep in the looming mountain's shadow as the sun disappeared 7 hours after we started.