The Overland Track – Day One

The Overland Track was an amazing hike. We did 65km over 6 days, through a variety of landscapes carrying packs close to 20kg each.
There was three in our little party – My husband Jeff (doubling as resident nurse), our friend Rachel and myself.

More than 8000 people from more than 50 countries walk this track each year. It was an added bonus getting to know other hikers from around Australia and the world as we would meet up at huts or pass (or in our case get passed) along the tracks.

The weather on our first day was brilliant! Warm to hot with clear blue skies! We started out at Ronnie Creek and set off up the boardwalk – a nice gentle start.
The weight on our shoulders was a bit of a shock – but with a bit of pack/strap adjusting we got most of the weight to settle on our hips.

I think a lot of people who have done this trek agree that the first days hike into Waterfall Valley is the most challenging of the 6 days. A total of 10.7kms with an especially steep ascent to get to Marion’s Lookout. (1250m)

It was the start of the going up sections I began to struggle. The first half of the first day was my biggest challenge. Apart from not being a speedy ‘going up’ person, I think I had managed to get myself a little over-anxious about getting organised and I was pretty nauseous pretty much until we got to Marion’s Lookout. My Nurse was fairly concerned as its not the kind of exercise you can do for long periods of time if you can’t even keep water in your stomach!!

The views just kept getting better and better, which mostly made up for my ‘slight’ indisposition.

Jeff and Rachel were fantastically patient. We took the last lot of insane stairs/chains up at a pretty slow pace.

 

Time to get the packs off for a break and enjoy the breathtaking views. From here, for myself, the water started staying down and I was feeling 100% better.

Time to set off across the glacial landscape under the looming mass of Cradle Mt itself

One of the great things about this hike is the plentiful beautiful fresh water available. Some people filtered their water, but Jeff and I took ours straight from the icy cold streams at every opportunity.

Jeff took some time to duct-tape up some developing blisters.

Mostly I took last place. Especially after I had been bumped into a few times as I stopped without warning to take photos!

We reached Kitchen Hut and took the packs off for a short break.

A lot of people leave their main packs here and head up Cradle Mt itself. Its a fairly steep and challenging climb and we opted just to keep to the main walk for our first day.

With the beautiful weather I am surprised we didn’t encounter more snakes on our walk. We did see one other large tiger snake a few days into the walk but that was it.

The track surface varied as much as the landscape. There were the easy boardwalks & steps

Rocky pathways

Old boarded walks that were coming apart

And some really challenging ‘choose your own adventure’ paths. Negotiating the rocks and tree roots could be a slow process at times – especially towards the end of the day when you were getting a bit weary!

The landscape kept changing and challenging us in different ways. When you spent time watching your feet you had to remember to stop, look up and around to appreciate where you were.

When you do this for the first time, its difficult to gauge how much further you had to go before finding the huts and camping sites. I think we were on the go for about 8 hours that first day!

Back to boardwalks was a bit of a relief! But the wind up here was pretty fierce and kept pushing us off the paths!

We finally started the descent which we assumed to be down into Waterfall Valley – our first camp.

Down through the pandani lined paths. Pandani is part of the heath family and is one of the tallest heaths in the world. I just think they have great looking hair-dos.

At last a sign and the huts are in sight!

We were greeted by one of the rangers who gave us general information on where to camp and rules about using the huts, water and toilets. (More on that later)
We were pretty keen to set up our tents, get some dinner and pass out for the night!

We made it through day one – Time to crawl into our sleeping bags and get some rest ready for day two!

Cheers!