Wolfgang Reinelt - Overland Track (2000/2001)

outdoor @ wolfgang-reinelt.de	Overland Track 2000/2001

Suppose, you have the following difficult problem to solve: you plan to attend a conference in Sydney in December and to visit the University of Newcastle in January, what should you do in the meantime? Well, Lonely Planet's "Bushwalking in Australia" gave me a pretty good idea of what outdoor adventures are available "down under". Since I was planning to visit a friend of mine in Melbourne, Tasmania appeared to be a good choice - so I decided to do the Overland Track there.

This walk offers a great nature that reminded me quite a lot on Scandinavia; you should be able to walk the some 100 km's in 4-5 days without hurrying too much. The weather fooled me a little bit with snow in during the first two days despite the summer time (right after X-mas). Snakes behave quite well on Tasmania, and there is only a hand-full of species around there, which are not that dangerous (compared to the guys on the mainland). Just follow the rules states at the NPs entrance and do what the ranger tells you at Waterfall Valley hut and you'll be alright.

Since this walk is quite popular and described in a lot of guide-books you will meet quite some people. I walked alone, so it was quite nice to have some company during the breaks and in the evening hours. For people who need to complete their equipment or who need some maps, quite a bunch of Outdoor shops and Mapland are situated at the X-ing of Lt Bourke St and Elisabeth St down in Melbourne. The "Cradle Mountain - Lake St Clair NP" map scaled 1:100000 will be sufficient to do the walk without getting lost (if you stick to the walk, and are not planning to visit the Labyrinth at the southern end). Transportation from Melbourne to Cradle Valley (the start of the Overlander) is best done by ship and bus. The bus schedules seem to be optimised for people going by the cat or the spirit of tasmania (the two ferries operated by TT line Australia) and staying overnight at the youth-hostels, rather than going by plane. If you're going between X-mas and new-year it is recommended to make an early reservation for ferry, bus and youth-hostel. Observe, that importing "fresh" food from continental-Australia to Tasmania is prohibited, so you might want to do some shopping before you start, since there is no possibility to pick up some food on the walk (well, you might want to shoot some of these bloody birds that try so steal your stuff, but that's a different story). The walk, as I did it was divided as follows:

27+28/12-2000: 'cat' and bus from Melbourne; arrival to Cradle Valley; moving on to Waterfall Valley hut
29/12-2000: Waterfall Valley hut - Frog Flats
30/12-2000: Frog Flats - Mt. Ossa - Kia Ora hut
31/12-2000: Kia Ora hut - Windy Ridge hut - Pine Valley hut
1/01-2001: Pine Valley hut - Narcissus hut
2/01-2001: Narcissus hut - Byron gap - Cynthia bay
3/01-2001: a lazy day on the BEACH
4+5/01-2001: bus + 'spirit' back to Melbourne