Alternatives to Going Overland

Alternatives to Going Overland

The Overland Track is a Tassie special, one of the world's great walks.

But not everyone has the time or the inclination to spend six days in the Tasmanian Wilderness World Heritage Area. There are shorter fully-guided alternatives. Some can combine plunges into the wilds where any lingering aches can be soothed by luxuries that, remarkably, are as easy to come by as the glacial lakes, mountains, rainforests, and occasional blister.

Day One: Cradle Mountain, Dove Lake to Scott-Kilvert Hut

With loaded backpacks our walk with Tasmanian Expeditions begins at the Dove Lake car park, near the start of the Overland Track. Instead of taking the Cradle Valley boardwalk our troupe, including guides Ben and Liv, pad toward Mount Campbell. As with the first day of the Overland the trail gets steep. Quickly. Besides being prepared for all weather we've also packed a basic level of fitness.

For a time the track runs roughly parallel with the Dove Lake Circuit trail but becomes a hardscrabble of splintered granite. Near the track to the summit of Mount Campbell (1248 metres) there are wonderful views of Dove Lake and Honeymoon Islands far below.

Gustav Weindorfer, an Austrian, is widely regarded as the founder of the park. He was something of a raconteur and passionate naturalist who combated a book's worth of privations to set up a home near Dove Lake. His hardships probably did not include an absence of cable TV, for almost certainly Weindorfer never had need for the Discovery Channel.

Nature docos are not always edge of the seat viewing but around Cradle the weather moves at the pace of a Ludlum thriller. Clouds race across mountains making them seem loftier than they are. Elsewhere the sun flashes on distant summits, glistens on the lake, then us. It's warm mostly but in a snap we slip jackets over T-shirts and sunscreen. Like all good thriller writers Mother Nature is totally unpredictable.

The next stage of the trail is wonderfully adventurous in parts. The path toward Twisted Lakes includes an almost vertical rise and a chain held fast in the rock helps with the ascent. Later, the walk to the Scott-Kilvert Hut is a mostly gentle descent on an easy path. The back side of Cradle is a companion most of the way. During our November visit the waratahs were blooming a glorious red.

At the hut there are also designated camp spaces. Ben and Liv lay out local cheeses and dips while dinner is prepared. Our troupe shares the commodious space with just two others, university students from Western Australia who have driven across the Nullarbor to camp and walk about Tassie. Their enthusiasm for their travels is almost impossibly beautiful. It rubs off. Our sleeping mats are far more comfortable than I had dared imagine. 

Day Two: Scott-Kilvert Hut to Black Jack Cabins

It's straight up from the hut on morning two. Plunger coffee helps fortify against an icy rain and the incline, part of the two-hour walk to Kitchen Hut. On the way up a cluster of native beech (Nothofagus gunni), Tasmania's only indigenous deciduous tree, huddles on a hill side (in April its golden leaves make prized photos), and pink robins flit within the rainforest scattering ad hoc colour.

On top of a ridge we join the Overland Track. There are views to Waterfall Valley and Barn Bluff. All the peaks in the Cradle Mountain-Lake St Clair National Park are wonderfully accessible. Visitors who don't make a habit of carrying karabiners and ropes on their trips will still be able to top this mountain if they draw on other essential climbing accoutrements - with patience and resolve trekkers simply follow the path to the summit.

Kitchen Hut is a rough-cut cold-weather beacon that can be completely covered with snow. In the cold and wet it has more appeal than a tumble in petrol prices. We contemplate the climb to the summit of Cradle, a five-hour return walk from Kitchen Hut, over steaming soup.

Due to the weather our guide Ben believes it prudent to forgo any summit push. We walk back to the Dove Lake car park via Marions Lookout and Weindorfer's charming boathouse and lodge. All the while we meet groups of perky folk on the first steps of the Overland Track.

We spend the night in a Tas-Ex owned cabin. The accommodation is shared and basic. The most prized space is right by the fire, until at least a few glasses of Tassie pinot warms the insides.

Day Three: Dove Canyon

An unobtrusive trail leads from the Visitors Centre and most people seem oblivious to it. Doubtless Cradle Mountain has stolen much of the focus. The highlight of this day, apart from travelling without a backpack, comes at the confluence of Pencil Pine and Dove Creeks. Beyond the myrtle forest and a sheer-sided canyon it's a place as pure as Pavarotti's voice during his performances in Rigolleto.

Water tumbles down a small waterfall. The tannin leached from the nearby buttongrass plains makes the water darker than a jealous rage and it foams and swirls as it finds a less torrid course in the calmest section of water, the very point of the two creeks' convergence. The surrounding rocks are the grandstand where you can watch for platypus. The forested spot must be as captivating as anywhere in the park and makes for light steps on the return walk.

When the walking ends Ben and Liv drop us at the Cradle Mountain Chateau. The complex has a Day Spa and a fine dining restaurant and it's really no trouble to take advantage of both.

The masseuses can have their way with you and once the aches from the trail have been massaged and spa'ed away, there are other Tassie highlights. The fresh local scallops, beef, cheeses and wines taste all the better for embracing the wilds - their inclemency and their extraordinary capacity to humble, provoke and entertain.

NOTES FROM THE ISLAND

• Tasmanian Expeditions operate the largest range of active and adventure holidays in Tasmania.
• The three-day walk around Cradle includes about four hours of walking per day
• Discover Tasmania is a comprehensive guide to the island state.

By Greg Clarke, Tourism Tasmania, January 2008.