The Overland Track – Tasmania 14 – 27 April 2014

The Overland Track must be one of the most well known bush walks in Australia. It passes through a wide range of beautiful scenery – past alpine peaks, through open wind swept and bleak moors, through ancient forests.

Even with repeated trips, it is still a very fine walk. I think this may have been my ninth time on the track (previously – four summer trips, one winter trip, two April trips and a May trip, two of these have been from south to north). So this was my third April trip. Why walk in April? A quieter track? No! Now you have to book online to do the Overland Track, and it is best to do this well in advance. I booked not long after my summer Tasmanian Walk, and found that during April, the track was almost filled booked. I was lucky to find a single spot in the week before Easter. It seems that this period is as busy as any time on the track. For a quieter track – then you need to do it in the non booking period (June – August), although perhaps May would be a bit quieter.

As well as booking online, you need to pay a fee of $200 and an extra $30 for a parks pass. This was not too much for me, with airfares and other transport costs, but it must make it hard for local walkers who want to venture regularly into their home area, and to family groups. The fee does contribute to paying for heating in the huts (gas is carried in by helicopter) and the flying out of all toilet waste.

Most walked would complete the track in about five days. But, if you have the time and can carry the extra food, it is well worth spending at least double this time along the track. My plan was to spend at least fourteen days out.

So – back to “why walk in April?”. The weather is usually not as fine as summer weather. It is a lot cooler and there is a much higher chance you will get snow than in summer, and the peaks always look a lot more spectacular when they are snow covered. Also – being Autumn – it is the fungi season – and in the amazing forest along the track there is often abundant fungi – varied and colourful. Enough for me to justify the extra weight of carrying a dedicated macro lens. But also, being Autumn it is also “Fall” and the leaves, well some of them, do really fall during April in certain places along the track. One of the two native species of beech – Nothofagus gunnii, is deciduous – and during the last half of April, its leaves turn from green to yellow and then orange before falling off. To see the changing of the “fagus” is an amazing experience.

Being a person who likes taking photographs, April is a great time to be out. If the weather is good -then you can climb peaks and camp high. If stormy weather comes then it adds to photographs.  If the weather stays bad, then you can stay low down in the sheltered forest and photograph the fungi and other features such as cascades.

I set off with 14 days food and equipment and also a basic set of camera gear. I included a light weight tripod and a 100 mm macro lens. This lens would also serve as my telephoto lens. I think my starting pack weight was about 21 kg, and of this, I think about 4 kg was camera gear. At least on the Overland Track nowadays, the track is very good and their are no really big hills to struggle up with a big pack.

Also – there is a the social aspect that you get on the Overland Track. You do tend to meet a really nice group of people – the other walkers on the track, hut wardens in some of the huts and rangers passing through. I met all of the above and even a number of other bushwalking photographers.

I had a period of good weather at the start of my walk. It lated from the start at Cradle Mountain all the way to the Pelion Valley. From then on the weather was punctuated by a series of fronts that passed over every second day or so. The resulting weather was not too bad – some rain and snow, but enough non wet spells between the squalls to provide for photographic opportunities.

I was welcomed to Waterfall Valley by the hut wardens, a couple from Victoria that had volunteered their time and experience for a long stay at the hut. They provided an unofficial check for walkers passing through – looking at their gear, competence, morale etc. If necessary they could advise walkers to return back to the start.

The walk from Waterfall Valley to Windemere is charming. Mostly you walk through exposed moorland, dotted with the odd stunted tree and a a few tarns. Lake Windemere itself lies in a more sheltered basin. It is a most beautiful area – particularly at dawn and dusk, when the low sun casts it rays over the buttongrass.

I can remember cooking tea and talking to fellow walkers, then watching a pale orange eclipsed moon appear over the trees. Magic!

The forests near Frog Flats, under the flanks of the Pelion Range, provided moist habitat that seemed to be making the fungi burst out of the ground in all sorts of strange clusters. I walked slowly, constantly stopping and setting up a tripod.

Pelion Hut provides a good base to spend a few days and do side trips or to just relax and take in the views of Mt Oakleigh and its amazing pinnacle ridge. I was tempted to do this – but the weather forecast indicated that the next day could be the last of the fine weather for a while and it may be better to move on to Kia Ora and climb Mt Ossa on the way. This is what I did – and I was quite lucky. When I climbed Mt Ossa – the top was shrouded in mist which greatly restricted views. I started descending and as I did, the mist started evaporating, so I retraced my steps back to the summit and enjoyed a fairly clear view.

Kia Ora hut was my last night in the company of a group of walkers that had all set out when I had – and I had got to know many of them quite well over the past few days. They were all fine people with a wide range of experience. Good company along the track. Next morning I farewelled them as hey set off in the rain for Windy Ridge. I decided to have a lay day at Kia Ora and give the weather a chance to improve. I was keen to photograph the waterfalls along the Mersey River. I needed dull weather for this – to provide soft even lighting, but was not keen to take photographs in pouring rain.

This turned out quite well. The morning was very wet. The next group of walkers, who had set out one day behind me, started trickling in about 11 am. No one had climbed Mt Ossa – far too wet and windy. Later in the afternoon, the weather eased a bit and I was able to walk to Du Cane Hut, shelter inside from a rain squall, and then return with frequent stops to photograph the fungi. A good afternoon.

This allowed me to walk faster to the waterfalls of the Mersey the next morning.

These waterfalls are certainly quite spectacular, with the torrent of a whole river pouring over each fall into a lower ravine.

Then I continued to Windy Ridge and spent a cosy night in the huge Bert Nicolls Hut. On the way down from Du Cane Gap – there were many more opportunities to stop and photograph some really nice climbs of fungi.

The next morning, in more fairly poor weather, I set off down the Overland Track and turned off up to Pine Valley.

Pine Valley. A great place. An amazing place! An ancient forest that does not appear to have been burnt for hundreds of years. An incredible range of trees – ancient twisted beech, very tall pandani, mighty King Billy Pines and towering Eucalypts breaking through the canopy. The valley floor covered with decaying logs, ferns, fungi and a carpet of moss. Cephissus Creek snakes its way through the cacophony.

It is a great place to take photographs. In bad weather you can retreat into Pine Valley Hut – a good base for a few days.

I stayed in the valley on my second day there – just photographing the creek, waterfalls and fungi. The day after, I wandered up the Acropolis in pretty poor weather. Cold, windy and a bit wet – but still a peak well worth climbing.

Also – at Pine Valley – it is a good place to meet up with other bushwalkers. On my second night in the hut, I met up with Brian “Eggs” and his wife, who had just returned from their camp in the Labyrinth. I knew Eggs from the Bushwalking.com forum. Also at the hut were a climbing friend from NSW – Carol and two of her friends. Carol also climbed the Acropolis. Also in the hut were two photographers – Luke and Gav – and we had an interesting chat about photo gear, lenses and nearby sites.

After the Acropolis, I decided to head up to the Labyrinth and camp for a few nights. The weather was quite reasonable the day I went up. I set up camp at Lake Elysia. It was quite cold – but quite pleasant to wander around the lake in the afternoon. The only disappointment was the fagus. It was very close to Anzac Day – when the deciduous beach is suppose to be at its best. This it had hardly started to change. It was mostly still green. A few trees had changed – and I concentrated my photographic records on them.

In the late afternoon, the sun made its presence felt for short while – too short! No golden hour.

Overnight it rained a lot and then snowed… and I awoke to a beautiful white scene. It was also very wet – big pools of melted snow and rain everywhere. It was cold! I made  few brief forays out from the tent, grabbed a few quite photographs and returned to the warmth of my sleeping bag. It was a very restful day. The Labyrinth had taken on an extra layer of beauty. It was real privilege to be there and experience it. I seemed to have the whole place to myself.

Later in the afternoon, the weather eased a bit, the snow had stopped and a the clouds broke a few times to let in a bit of sun. During the night – it rained and snowed a bit more. The weather during the morning was not too bad, so I decided to pack up and walk out while it was not too hard. The forecast for the next day was for a lot more snow.

Just when I had packed up and had walked a few steps, I met another walker. It was an old friend of mine, Stephen, who I knew well from SUBW days many years ago. He now lives with his family in Hobart and had been given a few days leave to head out to the hills. I knew he would be in the area. It was good to catch up. He was prepared to camp in the Labyrinth, but agreed that the forecast was not the best, so we both headed back down to Pine Valley.

The weather for us slowly improved as we descended and we managed to see some partly changed fagus and some good views of the Acropolis and Geryon.

Back down at Pine Valley Hut -were more friends – Rik and Rachel, who had walked across from the Walls of Jerusalem. And a surprise – another friend from UTS Outdoor Club – Ellen, and two of her friends. I also learned that I had missed another friend, Scott, who had passed by the day before while I had been up in the Labyrinth.

The next morning we awoke to snow falling outside and a creek that had broken its banks. We all set off and walked down to Narcissus Hut at Lake St Clair. It was cold and snowy weather and a multitude of other walkers had sought refuge in the hut. Many of these were waiting for the ferry down the Lake. Stephen and I and decided to walk around the lake – I liked the forest and thought from past experience that the fungi would be good (it was).

That afternoon, we walk around to Echo Point Hut. There was sago snow falling for most of the way – and it was good to get in the hut and fire up the pot belly stove. A few other walkers joined us, including another Stephen, who was from Canberra. He had done a solo walk from Higgs Track to the Walls of Jerusalem and then down the Chinaman Plains, descended to Lake Meston and then followed the mersey River down to the Overland Track. This is the type of walk I have enjoyed doing a number of times and we had an interesting chat.

The last morning of the walk – was a pleasant few hours walking around to Cynthia Bay.

A lot more photos of the walk are online at my website here.