Waldheim Chalet to Waterfall Valley Hut, Overland Track, Cradle Mountain Lake St Clair National Park - May 1998

Those posts I did about my trip around Australia with my mate Leigh almost did my head in, the amount of data almost did blogger in too, I had a lot of formatting issues trying to get those mega posts up. So, with another multi day post in front of me I decided to break it up into small bite size pieces, if this works alright I might keep going in this direction for awhile. Now there may be couple of issues with this method though, the first one is that some of the posts are going to be incredibly anaemic. The other issue is that the trips will be split up and all over the place, I'll try and link the posts together, but it's not ideal. So anyway to test out the new format I thought that I'd start with a classic, The Overland Track in Tasmania.

The fagus was a golden brown on this visit.

This was our first time on The Overland Track and we weren't disappointed, it certainly is a great walk. Before we could set off though we spent a couple of nights at the flash Cradle Mountain Lodge,  a softer way to ease us into the adventure I can't think of. We spent the day before our Overland Track walk checking out some of the pretty day walks around the area, the Lake Dove Circuit was particularly scenic with the fagus a golden brown, you'd almost think we planned it...but we didn't even know what fagus was until getting down to Tasmania. Being late May the weather was a little on the marginal side though, Cradle Mountain's flanks coated with snow drew our eyes whenever the cloud parted a bit, oh well tomorrow we'd get a close look I suppose.

The weather looks a bit grim up there.

That's Crater Falls from the Dove Lake Walk, you can just see it through the mist.

Enjoying our last cooked breakfast at Cradle Mountain Lodge we were slightly perturbed to be looking out the windows at snow flurries coming down, we were going to be in for a cold days walking. After getting dropped off at Waldheim Chalet which was the official start point of The Overland Track back in 1998, we set off across the first of many buttongrass plains on the ubiquitous duck boarding. The Overland Track starts off pretty gently crossing Ronny Creek and then starting a beautiful climb up towards Crater Lake, passing the pretty Crater Falls on the way. By the time we got to the boat shed at Crater Lake we were in proper snow, although the Beech Forest gave us a bit of shelter as we climbed.

The old boat shed at Crater Lake.

We were now in a proper snow storm.

It was very pretty walking as we climbed away from Crater Lake.

Meeting the track that comes up from Dove Lake we started really climbing now, this short pinch up to Marions Lookout is the steepest on the whole Overland Track and we were doing it in a full on snow storm, Sam must have been wondering what she'd got herself into, she's not keen on hills or cold so we had it all really. Passing by the views of Marions Lookout, hidden in the cloud and snow, we levelled off onto a fairly bleak Cradle Plateau. The walking is fairly easy across here normally but today we were pushing through snow around a foot deep so we had to be a bit careful (years later I'd get caught up here in a blizzard and spend a very crowded night at Kitchen Hut).

The steepest climb on the Overland Track is this climb up to Marions Lookout.

Conditions were a little bleak up on the Cradle Plateau today.

Slowly but surely we made our way along the flanks of Cradle Mountain and out towards Cradle Cirque, the weather clearing enough to give us a quick glimpse of the stunning scenery that we were passing through. With the weather deteriorating we were quite happy to leave the high ground and start the more sheltered descent down into Waterfall Valley. It wasn't long until we arrived at the short side track to Waterfall Valley Hut, after scraping the wet snow off our packs we went inside to find an empty cold hut, but to us it was as welcome as any other accommodation that we have ever stayed in. Soon I had the water boiling for a hot drink as we made ourselves at home, it was a novelty for us to be sitting in the nice hut while watching the snow fall outside through the window, and that's how we spent the rest of the afternoon, reading, drinking and gazing out the window. We did venture outside during one lull in the weather, spending a bit of time checking out the waterfalls in the valley as well as the Old Waterfall Valley Hut, I was glad that we weren't sleeping in this basic hut tonight.

Every now and again the weather would break a bit to give us a bit of a view of the stunning scenery that surrounded us.

Yeah I think we'll give Barn Bluff a miss today.

Descending down into Waterfall Valley we got a break from the worst of the conditions.

Scraping the wet snow off the packs before taking them into the welcome Waterfall Valley Hut.

The Dirt.

We walked 10.4 kilometres today. This section of The Overland Track passes over the highest elevation of the whole walk, it also features the steepest climb, the short pinch up to Marions Lookout. We started from Waldheim but that track is closed now and most people start from Ronny Creek, although you can just as easily start from Dove Lake. Once you arrive at Marions Lookout though the majority of the climbing is done for the day, its then just a matter of heading across the plateau before you drop down into Waterfall Valley, if the weathers OK the side trips to Cradle Mountain and Barn Bluff are very much worth doing. The only real shelter on the route is at the small Kitchen Hut, until you arrive at the more salubrious Waterfall Valley Hut at the end of the day.

Relevant Posts.

Cradle Mountain 2007

Lake Dove 2007  

Overland Track Winter 2003 

The Old Waterfall Valley Hut, incidentally you can still stay in this hut.

A couple of cold Bennets Wallabies checking out the crazy visitors.

As the name implies, there is no shortage of waterfalls in Waterfall Valley, this one is near the old hut.