Nele & Andrew Around Oz

Day 302 – 15^th December 2011

Waterfall Valley Hut, Cradle Mountain-Lake St Clair National Park, TAS

Day 1 of 8 – Overland Track

Ronny Creek to Waterfall Valley (10km, 380m ascent, 250m descent)

Side Trip: Cradle Mountain (2km return, 340m ascent/descent)

This morning we left on our Overland Track Hike. We parked the van at the visitor information centre and took the shuttle bus to Ronny Creek carpark. Before leaving on the walk we signed the walker book to register our trip and intended finishing date. On the first stretch of boardwalk we were lucky to see a wombat – he must have been wishing us well. We walked past Crater Falls and Crater Lake, climbing our way up with heavy loaded backpacks to Marion’s Lookout from where you get great views over Dove Lake, Cradle Mountain and the plains back to Ronny Creek carpark. At the lookout Andrew realized he had taken a wrong plastic bag out his pack this morning – a last minute decision to leave an extra thermal top behind made him pull out the bag containing his thermal pants, gloves and beanie. As these may be quite essential if the weather would get bad we were stuck with a dilemma of going back or not. We decided Andrew would walk back and Nele would stay with the packs and enjoy the scenery. Andrew ran down in 30min, caught the bus back to the van, grabbed his other bag, waited 10min for the bus before getting back to Ronny Creek and finally walked/ran back up in 45min, making it a 2h return trip to Marion’s Lookout. Not bad! We had a quick lunch before continuing on to Kitchen Hut. We left our packs in the bushes and climbed up Cradle Mountain. A hard climb over big boulders towards the end which Nele didn’t enjoy all that much, but the views from the top were spectacular. We walked back down to discover the crows had found our packs and managed to undo our special trick of closing the zips, but luckily they didn’t get too much stuff out. We started walking again and were happy to reach the hut by 7.30pm. Luckily there was still some room for us to sleep in the hut, as we didn’t feel like putting the tent up. It’s been a day of solid walking with an extra trip for Andrew! We heated up our precooked risotto meal and after tea it was almost bedtime.

Registration

Beginning of the Overland track

off we go...

a liitle friend to wish us well

hello there

easy so far, with good boardwalks

starting to incline

views of Ronny Creek beyond

old hut at Crater Lake

Crater Lake

getting steeper - how's the backpack Nele?

Crater Lake

Dove Lake & Lake Lilla

Resting at Marion's Lookout

Dove Lake & Cradle Mountain

Dove Lake
Views from Marion's Lookout

Dove Lake & Lake Lilla
Views from Marion's Lookout

A little tired after having run back to the start
Marion's Lookout

Cradle Mountain

Barn Bluff - tomorrow's climb

Cradle Mountain....up we go

Views over Little Plateau
Cradle Mountain Climb

A few boulders to scramble over
Cradle Mountain Climb

Finally at the summit
Cradle Mountain Climb

Having a break at the summit
Cradle Mountain Climb

Summit
Cradle Mountain Climb

Nice views
Cradle Mountain Climb

Barn Bluff in the distance
Cradle Mountain Climb

Nice views
Cradle Mountain Climb

Climbing back down
Cradle Mountain Climb

Climbing back down - views of Dove Lake
Cradle Mountain Climb

We tried to hide our packs and tie our zips however the
crows still managed to pull out some of our gear

Cradle Mountain

back on the overland track towards Waterfall valley

Inspiring scenery

Walking towards Waterfall Valley

Barn Bluff

Walking towards Waterfall Valley

At lasts Waterfall Valley Hut in sight

Day 301 – 14^th December 2011

Discovery Holiday Park, Cradle Valley, TAS

Today was Andrew’s birthday. We were keen to go out for a nice lunch to celebrate but the day turned out a bit more hectic than expected so we had to postpone it till after our hike. After breakfast we had a look at the local beach, before driving to Launceston passing through Beaconsfield again and having a look at the Mine and Heritage Centre. We also stopped at Bradys Lookout offering views over the Tamar River. At Launceston we picked up another parcel at the post office and did some more shopping of clothes and food for the hike (we’ve invested in some good hiking clothes which will be good for future walks as well). We had lunch on the go and stopped at Sheffield for an icecream and a short stroll around the “Town of Murals”. We continued along the scenic drive to Cradle Valley with great views of Mt Roland along the way. We picked up our Overland Track walking passes from the visitor centre and checked in the caravan park where we packed our bags and enjoyed a big serving of yummy spaghetti bolognaise. We are now ready for the walk!