(Drum Roll) Final Day of the Overland!!

Hi there!! Finally – rounding off the last day of our Overland Track hike!
You might want to put the kettle on and make a cuppa for this one…
Last Day:
Despite the desperate “Mouse-Watch” of the previous evening, the enterprising little rodent managed to get into some food and kept people awake with its marauding ways! (Lets not dob in the snorer that night huh?)

People were up early as a couple of groups had pick-up deadlines to be back at Lake St Clair by. Fiona and I stayed put in our sleeping bags until they were mostly sorted out so we wouldn’t be in the way.
We were bidding farewell to Angela, Martin & Paul who had a 3pm bus to catch, and even earlier, Mark and Adam had to be back at 2pm for their ride.

Since Fiona and I didn’t have a deadline and the rest of the hikers were catching the ferry later, we got to have a leisurely breakfast and soak up the absolutely dazzling morning! Can’t quite equate this to 6 days ago, slogging through blizzards in knee high snow!!

We had a short moment of excitement when the helicopter flew in on its start of hauling track equipment back over the lake. Its amazing how out of place the sound of a motor is after 6 days in the wilderness!

Each hut has a helipad – can be for emergencies, bringing in supplies or taking out the composting toilet waste. Personally I think the helipads are best used at night to get a brilliant view of the stars on clear nights!

This was the first of many trips this pretty red machine did that day. We heard it coming and going during most of our hike.

We eventually got our gear together (I pretty much hiked in my nightwear that day… since I didn’t need to keep my hut clothes clean anymore!)
Ahead of us today was 17km around the lake – no mountains… lots of undulating tracks, streams and mudholes!

Before we set out on this hike, Fiona dashed off to K-Mart to buy the cheapest and most inappropriate footwear for the huts in the evenings!!! The unicorn was a nice touch!! Too funny. Mind you, she had to borrow my more sensible crocs to go out to the loo in the snow!!

We started out on the Hamilton Plains – lovely and open before diving into the darker tangled forests.

Signs are few and far between on the track. I do like the moss covered rustic look though!
The track was quite hard to follow at times – the only markers were those little orange triangles every so often – we strayed off the ‘path’ at least three times that day!

No shortage of magnificent trees…

And why not a last chance to hug a few more of these beauties?

So many streams and tangled undergrowth… it was lovely to find a spot to get out on to the edge of the lake for a rest, drink and snack.

Of course there was no shortage of interesting fungi and I was regretting my lack of macro lens even more that last day!

I had an amusing moment or two watching Fiona sort out getting under this log… she was still at the stage of day of trying not to get feet wet and muddy, which made it pretty awkward right there. Was totally waiting for her to end up sitting in a mud puddle!!

Happily, no mishaps. (I had no trouble as I was quite content to slosh directly through the mud (poor boots))

The track was pretty boggy and some sections of boardwalk extremely slippery if you stepped off the chicken wire! (wasn’t it Fee??) 😀

Plenty of things to look at if you wanted to take the time to admire it all!

We’d occasionally catch glimpses of the lake

About two hours in, we reached Echo Point – where poor Jeff had camped his last night of the Overland in the pouring rain and cold while a mouse ate his last days rations!

Its a cute rustic little hut, but I am glad we stayed at Narcissus for our last night – more comfortable and a whole lot of fun!

Time for morning tea and a sit down in that divine sunshine!

I should have taken one more nibble out of that muesli bar so it matched the mountain better!

Fiona decided to eat half her lunch early!

All in all… a really nice little break!

Time to sling the packs back on and continue

I really liked sections of the track… twisty roots and leaf covered paths

How cool and weird is this fungi?

According to the drunk angle of this photo I suspect I might have been tiring!

Occasionally we would find substantial obstacles over the path!
There was a spot where you could see people having climbed over, but the drop on the other side was significant enough for us to have to take a wider detour around the tree.

The following tangled mess was what I had to crawl up through when avoiding another massive tree that had fallen across the path!

In other places, track workers had cut a path for us!

In case you hadn’t got the idea of the state of my boots yet… here’s another photo!

(I am not sure if its standard operating procedure, but when I got home I took them into the shower with me and soaped them up and rinsed them 100 times to get the dirt, leaves, mud & small marsupials out of them. It probably took them about three days by the fire to dry properly.)

Lunch time!! We found this lovely spot out on the lake where these behemoths of trees had fallen.

It was gorgeous out there – prime picnic spot!

The last part of the hike was probably the most frustrating. We really couldn’t get a sense of how far we had to go.
Also, until about an hour out from the visitors centre when we met an American fellow hiking towards us… we saw no-one at all that day! We were used to catching up to people or having people catching up to us and saying hi, with a bit of a chat. Day 7 was a bit more isolating, even though we were closer to the end!

Finally – we were within sight of the end…

Fancy bridges, roads and well dressed people who didn’t talk to you! (They probably (and rightly) thought we smelled funny)

And finally there we were!! 7 days and 85km’s later, through every bit of weather possible – we made it & still smiling!
(Mind you I was slightly disappointed there was no crowd at the visitors centre to see us walk in and give us a standing ovation, but I suppose you can’t have everything…)

We found Fiona’s husband Paul and his friend in the carpark (they’d just done quite a hike themselves). They had our pre packed bags of clean clothes and a towel and we proceeded to go and have the BEST 5 minute showers of our lives!
Bliss…

Well… hope you enjoyed it. We certainly had a blast.
I am all fired up to do it again next year… just see who I can convince to join in the next party… anyone out there keen??

Cheers!