A little walk in the woods

Well it all started when I casually mentioned to a friend here that I was thinking about walking the world famous Overland walking track...in a day. He laughed at me first and then suggested that doing it in 2 or 3 days would be a major accomplishment for me. From that moment it was on! I had to walk the track in a day.

The Overland track stretches for 80 kms (50 miles) through Tasmania's central highlands. People from all over the world travel to Tasmania to walk this beautiful trail and stay in up to 7 comfortable huts. Below is a map showing the trail. Most of these people take 5-7 days and when they arrive at Lake St. Clair they jump on a ferry to avoid the remaining 18 km hike around the lake. More on this later.


I was content to do the walk by myself but there was one friend here that I thought might be up for the challenge as well. I called Nick and told him of my plans and like most of my adventures we were in the car that night driving to the carpark. We arrived at Cradle Mtn National Park at 2:45am. By 3:05am we had packed our bags and were heading out without having slept at all. Below is a picture of Nick showing the departure time.


We walked in the dark with the full moon setting for around three hours. It was awesome walking at this time of day. When you are walking long distances it gives you lots of time to think about friends and good times you've shared with them. I thought of so many of you while doing this knowing that most of you would have loved a wacky adventure such as this.

Looking north up the Forth River valley

Nick and I at the halfway point

Well, I don't want to go into the details too much but with only about 10 kms to go before the lake both Nick and I were feeling the effects in our legs of walking/running the distance. When we finally arrived at the lake we were WORKED! Nick's knee was ruined and he decided to camp at the last hut and wait for the morning ferry to arrive. With Lora staying at a nice warm cabin on the other side of the lake I decided to push on. There was only 12 miles of trail between me and a nice warm meal and comfortable bed with my wife to welcome me home like the warrior that I am. I guess I should mention that we only brought one sleeping bag with us in case of emergency. That meant that Nick and I would have had to spoon the entire night to stay warm. So I set off for 3 more hours of hobbling in the dark.

Lots of miles of boardwalks due to the boggy nature of the ground

In total I hiked the entire track around 50 miles. It took me 2 or 3 days to fully recover and be able to walk around. Luckily, all that time off my feet gave me ample time to work on some math assignments for grad school.

One of the highlights was telling my friend that I had done it in a day. Actually, it was the total experience that I will remember for a long time to come.