Hiking the Overland Track Hiking the Overland Track
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HIKING THE OVERLAND TRACK HIKING THE OVERLAND TRACK TASMANIA: CRADLE MOUNTAIN–LAKE ST CLAIR About the Author NATIONAL PARK Warwick Sprawson lives in Melbourne, Australia. After studying engi- by Warwick Sprawson neering he spent many years working and hiking in England, Ireland, Canada, Spain, Japan, Mexico and Costa Rica. Returning to Melbourne, he ditched engineering and studied Australian Land Conservation and Management, subsequently working as a bushland regenerator. Developing an interest in writing about Australia’s native plants and ani- mals, he completed RMIT’s Professional Writing and Editing course, and since 2008 has worked full time as a writer, including as a regular con- tributor to Wild and Great Walks magazines. JUNIPER HOUSE, MURLEY MOSS, OXENHOLME ROAD, KENDAL, CUMBRIA LA9 7RL www.cicerone.co.uk © Warwick Sprawson 2020 First edition 2020 CONTENTS ISBN: 978 1 78631 013 2 Printed in China on behalf of Latitude Press Ltd Map key ...................................................... 7 A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. Overview map ................................................. 8 Route summary tables .......................................... 12 Route mapping by Lovell Johns www.lovelljohns.com The Overland huts ............................................. 15 All photographs are by the author unless otherwise stated. Contains OpenStreetMap.org data © OpenStreetMap con- INTRODUCTION ............................................. 17 tributors, CC-BY-SA. NASA relief data courtesy of ESRI Location ..................................................... 19 History ...................................................... 20 Acknowledgements Geology ..................................................... 26 First and foremost, thanks to Yasmin Kelsall for saying ‘Yes’ on top of Mt Oakleigh. Plants and animals ............................................. 33 Let’s keep adventuring together. Sincere thanks to the excellent photographers who generously allowed the PLANNING YOUR TRIP ......................................... 37 use of their photos in this book, particularly Dave Watts (www.davewattsphoto. When to go .................................................. 37 com) for the mammals, Alan Fletcher for the birds and Michael Thow for the Ways to hike the track .......................................... 38 snakes. Thanks also to Karen McGregor for her GPS wizardry and the Tasmania Hiking direction ............................................... 39 Parks and Wildlife Service for their fact-checking help. Doing the hike with kids ......................................... 40 Permits ...................................................... 41 Booking your hike ............................................. 41 Updates to this Guide Signing in .................................................... 44 Getting there ................................................. 44 While every effort is made by our authors to ensure the accuracy of guidebooks Accommodation and facilities at the start of the track ................... 46 as they go to print, changes can occur during the lifetime of an edition. Any Accommodation and facilities at the end of the track ................... 51 updates that we know of for this guide will be on the Cicerone website (www. Accommodation and facilities on the track ........................... 54 cicerone.co.uk/1013/updates), so please check before planning your trip. We also advise that you check information about such things as transport, accom- PLANNING DAY-BY-DAY ........................................ 58 modation and shops locally. Using this guide ............................................... 58 The route maps in this guide are derived from publicly available data, data- What to take .................................................. 59 bases and crowd-sourced data. As such they have not been through the detailed Food and water ................................................ 61 checking procedures that would generally be applied to a published map from Waymarking .................................................. 62 an official mapping agency, although naturally we have reviewed them closely in Maps ....................................................... 63 the light of local knowledge as part of the preparation of this guide. Sidetrips ..................................................... 63 We are always grateful for information about any discrepancies between Health, safety and emergencies ................................... 64 a guidebook and the facts on the ground, sent by email to updates@cicerone. Phones and Wi-Fi .............................................. 70 co.uk or by post to Cicerone, Juniper House, Murley Moss, Oxenholme Road, Kendal, LA9 7RL. THE OVERLAND TRACK ........................................ 71 Register your book: to sign up to receive free updates, special offers and Stage 1 Ronny Creek to Waterfall Valley Huts ...................... 72 GPX files where available, register your book at www.cicerone.co.uk. Stage 2 Waterfall Valley Huts to Windermere Hut ................... 85 MAP KEY Stage 3 Windermere Hut to New Pelion Hut ....................... 90 Stage 4 New Pelion Hut to Kia Ora Hut .......................... 102 Stage 5 Kia Ora Hut to Bert Nichols Hut ......................... 111 Symbols used on route maps Stage 6 Bert Nichols Hut to Narcissus Hut ........................ 120 Stage 7 Narcissus Hut to Cynthia Bay ........................... 136 PLANT AND ANIMAL GUIDE ................................... 145 Overland Track Plant guide .................................................. 146 Relief alternative start in metres Animal guide ................................................ 174 sidetrip 1600–1800 Appendix A Useful contacts ................................... 197 other track 1400–1600 Appendix B Suggested clothing, gear and food .................... 200 start point 1200–1400 Appendix C What now? Other hikes in Tasmania ................... 204 1000–1200 finish point 800–1000 alternative start point 600–800 route direction 400–600 Wynyard peak 200–400 Georgetown Burnie hut/emergency hut 0–200 Ulverstone Devonport campsite building SCALE: 1:50,000 Cradle Valley Launceston pass 0 kilometres 0.5 1 0 miles 0.5 Lake St Clair water feature National Park viewpoint Contour lines are drawn at 25m intervals significant bridge Cynthia Bay and highlighted at waterfall 100m intervals. parking New Norfolk Sorell other feature Hobart ferry route AUSTRALIA Cradle Mountain - Lake St Clair National Park boundary Tasmania GPX files for all routes can be downloaded free at www.cicerone.co.uk/1013/GPX. Front cover: A mountain tarn near the summit of Mt Ossa (Stage 4 sidetrip) 7 8 H IKING T H E O VERLAND Cradle Mountain Visitor Centre C132 Cradle Mountain Visitor Centre 1 stage start T RACK 1 stage start 1 C132 Ronny 1Creek Ronny Creek 1 7 Dove Lake 1 Kitchen Hut C 1 7 Dove Lake 1 Kitchen Hut Cradle Mountain C CradleCirque Mountain emergency shelter WaterfallCirque emergencyValley Huts shelter rBa n Blu Waterfall2 Valley Huts rBaLaken Blu Will 2 0 0 1 1 Lake Will A A Windermere Hut Windermere Hut 3 Derwent Bridge Derwent Bridge 3 Mt Oakleigh 1 1 7 7 Rowallan Lake 1 1 Lake Rowallan Lake Mt Oakleigh Rowallan Lake C C 4 Old Pelion 0 Lake Rowallan Lake 0 1 Hut 4 1 A New Pelion Hut PARK NATIONAL PARK NATIONAL A Old Pelion Cynthia Bay Cynthia Bay Hut New Pelion Hut OF JERUSALEM WALLS OF JERUSALEM WALLS Lake LakeSt Clair St Clair CRADLE MOUNTAIN – Mt Pelion East CRADLELAKE MOUNTAIN ST CLAIR – Mt Pelion East NATIONALLAKE ST CLAIR PARK Mt Ossa 5 NATIONAL PARK Mt Ossa Kia Ora Hut 5 Bert Nichols Hut Bert Nichols Hut Kia OraDu Cane Hut Hut Mt Pelion East Mt Pelion East Du6 Cane Hut New Pelion Hut New Pelion Hut WALLS OF JERUSALEM Echo Point Hut Echo Point Hut The Acropolis 6 Bert Nichols Hut NATIONAL PARK Labyrinth Lookout WALLS OF JERUSALEM The Acropolis Bert Nichols Hut Du Cane Hut Du Cane Hut NATIONAL PARK Narcissus Hut Narcissus Hut Labyrinth Lookout Kia Ora Hut Kia Ora Hut Mt Ossa Mt Ossa Hut Hut Mt Oakleigh Mt Oakleigh The Acropolis The Acropolis Old Pelion Old Pelion Labyrinth Lookout Labyrinth Lookout Cirque emergency shelter Cirque emergency shelter Cirque emergency Cradle Mountain Cradle Mountain Dove Lake Dove Lake Dove 7 Waterfall Valley Huts Waterfall Valley Huts Cradle Mountain Visitor Centre Cradle Mountain Visitor Centre Launceston Narcissus Hut 7 C132 C132 Cradle Valley Narcissus Hut Lake St Clair National Park Cynthia Bay Echo Point Hut n Blu n Blu Lake St Clair Ronny Creek Ronny Creek N Will Lake Will Lake LAKE ST CLAIR LAKE ST CLAIR LAKE ST Kitchen Hut Kitchen Hut Kitchen Bar Bar Echo Point Hut PARK NATIONAL PARK NATIONAL N Windermere Hut Windermere Hut Lake St Clair Hobart – CRADLE MOUNTAIN – CRADLE MOUNTAIN 0 5 10 0 AUSTRALIA5 km 10 A10 km Cynthia Bay O A Tasmania 10 Cynthia Bay VERVIEW Derwent Bridge Derwent Bridge M 0 1 AP 9 A 0 1 A HIKING THE OVERLAND TRACK Mountain safety Every mountain walk has its dangers, and those described in this guidebook are no exception. All who walk or climb in the mountains should recognise this and take responsibility for themselves and their companions along the way. The author and publisher have made every eort to ensure that the information contained in this guide was correct when it went to press, but, except for any liability that cannot be excluded by law, they cannot accept responsibility for any loss, injury or inconvenience sustained by any person using this book. Distress signal (emergency