Overland Track – Wrong Way Go Back!!
December 2012-January 2013
After many, many months of planning, reading and a little bit of training the time had come to finally embark on the much anticipated Overland Track (Tasmania) adventure. So along with ten other people which included my sister and her family and another family from Wynyard we set off on December 27 for the 2 hour drive from Wynyard to Cradle Mountain – the start of the Overland Track.
Packs were finalized and weighed the previous night as we had a 7am departure next morning. Despite aiming for a pack weight of no more than 15Kgs, and hopefully less, I started with a pack weight of just over 18Kgs!! First mistake right there!! The big clue should have been that I had to rely on someone else to lift and put my pack on my back. Despite this I still persevered and headed off on the first day of the six day walk from Ronny Creek heading to the top of Marions Lookout.
It became apparent in the first ten minutes I was going to struggle as I quickly dropped behind the group, and this was mainly flat. Once the track started to go up alarm bells began to ring for me. I lost sight of the group and my sister Maureen kept coming back to see how I was going. The weight of the pack was just too much and my fitness level didn’t allow me to cope with the weight plus the climb – and this was only in the first hour. Two hours later I reached the base of Marions Lookout only to see that most of the group had already reached the top of the Lookout. Maureen had stayed back to wait for me. Mr P from the group had offered to come back down from the summit to carry my pack up so I could walk up to the top pack free – an amazing offer considering the sheer vertical climb involved to reach the summit. I made the decision to not go any further for a few reasons among them being that I didn’t think I could physically manage the walk and I also didn’t want this to impact the rest of the party over the coming days. So I said goodbye to Maureen, took a few pics and rested before heading back down to Ronny Creek. Another 2.5 hrs later including many rest stops I made it back to Ronny Creek, jumped on the shuttle bus and headed back to Cradle Mountain base where our car was.
I decided to camp the night at Cradle Mountain in the park, so booked a spot and set up the tent, cooked dinner and turned in early to contemplate what I would do tomorrow morning. It rained quite a bit that night but I was warm and dry in my tent. Next morning it was pretty damp so after breakfast I packed everything up – well I actually just threw everything in the back of the car (no folding or packing involved) and drove the two hours back to Wynyard. Once there I emptied my backpack and started re-packing it, though this time I left a lot out and reduced the weight by about 5Kgs! I had a hot shower, something nice to eat from the local bakery and started on the 4 hour drive down to Lake St Clair, which is in fact the end of the Overland Track. I called ahead and booked a bed for the night as I was going to be arriving late and it was raining.
After a good night’s sleep I was now in a much better frame of mind and ventured to the visitors centre at Cynthia Bay to talk about the walking options I had. I had a plan in my head that I would walk to the second last hut on the Overland Track at Windy Ridge, arriving New Year’s Eve, surprising my family and friends as they arrived from the other direction. The lady at the visitors centre told me that at this time of year there was only one way walking allowed on the track and I was planning to go the wrong way!! There were however options to walk some of the way and wait at the last hut at Narcissus for my friends. So with this in mind I headed off against the traffic and walked the 11Kms to the first stop at Echo Point on the way to Narcissus which was a total of 16Kms.
The walk was pretty difficult. The track was very narrow, dense vegetation a lot of the time across the track, lots of fallen trees to climb over, and the floor of the tack was tree roots and muddy bogs all the way. You had no option other than to watch your every step occasionally stopping to look up at what was around you. The walk was quite scenic as it was along Lake St Clair, mainly fairly high up but sometimes closer to the water before heading up again. Then I fell … then I fell again, this time falling heavily face first on to rocks and tree roots. Lying there with my pack on my back and pain shooting through me I just looked up through all the trees to the blue sky and cried. There was no one in sight, certainly no one walking in the same direction and a handful of walkers had passed me on their return to Cynthia Bay to complete their 65Km Overland Track Walk. Eventually I managed to unclip my pack and get up, pull myself together and keep walking.
Occasionally a walker would approach and I would ask how long to Echo Point? Some said one hour, others two hours, none of them were accurate at all which was very frustrating. In all it took me 5 hours to get to Echo Point and complete the first 11Kms. There was a very small and very old hut to stay in at Echo Point, however I opted to set my tent up on the beach. It was an amazing spot, secluded and sheltered from the strong winds and only a couple of metres from the pure waters of the Lake. I arrived at 3pm, set up camp and cooked dinner and climbed into my tent with my food. Unfortunately I was feeling quite unwell by this stage and didn’t eat a thing, and by 4.30 in the afternoon I was in my sleeping bag and sound asleep not waking until next morning. I had the beach to myself apart from the Lake Ferry that stops off at the beach pier 3 times a day to drop off tourists who want to walk back to Cynthia Bay where I had started my walk – boy were they in for a surprise! The weather was so beautiful and warm and the spot was so magical I decided to stay another night. A couple of girls arrived late in the afternoon and they set their tent up just along from me.
Next morning I made the decision to jump on the early morning ferry and it took me the last 5Kms to Narcissus where the last hut was located. I then took off to walk the 10Kms to Windy Ridge, hoping that I wouldn’t run into one of the Park Rangers who walk the track each day checking people have Overland Track passes and to check on huts. This walk was really lovely, much nicer than the first part I had undertaken. I also offloaded my tent at Narcissus to pick it up on the way back. This walk took me through rain forest, tall timber forests and had some challenging sections but nothing I couldn’t handle with my much lighter pack(by now it was probably 12Kgs). The track was a continual gradual upward sloping one and I took occasional rests for water and to give my legs a break. I passed quite a few walkers who were on their way out and most of them commented that I was going the wrong way!! I just kept on walking. I finally made Windy Ridge in 3hrs 45mins, about 5 minutes before the others arrived from the other direction. Needless to say they were pretty surprised to see me. My 12 year old niece was just gorgeous telling me how proud she was of me that I had not given up and had found another way to make the most of my time in the area and not head home. That really meant the world to me.
So we all had new years together, although we were all in bed by 9.30pm but not before going outside and lighting some sparklers (with the approval of the Park Ranger) and singing auld langsyne. It was well worth the walk just to be there with everyone. I was so pleased I had stuck to my plan.
Next morning we left at 9am to walk the 10Kms back down to Narcissus and meet the ferry that would take us back to Cynthia Bay and the end of the Overland Track. The walk started off a little drizzly but soon the sun appeared and so I took off my rain coat, leaving my waterproof pants and gaiters on. Unfortunately about an hour from the finish the rain came again and much heavier, but I continued without a coat as I was determined to get to the end in a reasonable time, albeit pretty darn wet. I was really pleased to make the return part of the walk in 3 hours, a whole 45 mins less that the walk up.
So all in all I walked 40Kms, along parts of the Overland Track that none of the others had seen and camped for two nights on the most magical beach and felt I had truly experienced the Tassie wilderness and overcome the initial disappointment of not being able to complete the entire walk with family and friends.
So what did I learn from this experience? I learned that:
- It’s okay to change your goals
- It’s not a failure if you don’t reach the original goal
- It’s all about how you pick yourself up and continue
- Chicken, no matter how small it is chopped DOES NOT rehyrdrate!! Use chicken mince next time.
- Don’t ask other walkers how long to the next stop/hut. Their one hour is your two hours, and their 5 minutes is probably your half an hour!
- If you think your pack is too heavy before you start, you are probably right. Fix it before you leave. You only need half of what you think you need.
- This is definitely not a walk you should do solo
