It feels wild writing this so many weeks later as I am laying on our newly assembled Ikea couch in our newly rented house in Michigan. Life has been a whirlwind! But I cannot neglect to document the last few weeks of our sabbatical. They were just too spectacular to ignore.
Our time in Tasmania was dedicated to the Overland Track – an 80km hiking trail through national park land. The Overland is known as Australia’s most famous hiking trail and boasts an impressive diversity of landscape and wildlife. The national park service limits the number of hikers allowed on the trail every day, so we were lucky that one of our friends snagged a permit! Our hiking crew totaled 8, all of us connected through our relationships with Brad and Melissa.
The plan was to take things slow and spread the trip out over 8 days and 7 nights – plenty of time to enjoy the scenery.
We took SO MANY photos during the trek, I had a hard time weeding any out. Buckle up, readers…this is a long one!
Prep Days
From Melbourne, the 8 of us took the short 1 hour flight to Launceston, Tasmania – our jumping off point for the hike. We spent a night getting last minute supplies and checking out the town. Most notably, we stumbled upon a strange little billiard hall with a tiny guard dog named Sweet Little Chili.
We stayed in a “pod hotel” which was a first for all of us. It was basically a hostel but instead of bunk beds they provided individual capsules. I was skeptical but they were surprisingly cozy!
After our prep day in “Lawny”, as the Aussies call it, we packed our backpacks and shuttled into the National Park where we would spend the night at the trailhead and and take off for the trail in the morning!
Day 1
It was a little chilly and overcast the morning we started, which was quite nice because we were pretty exposed for most of the day. Within 10 minutes of hitting the trail, we stumbled upon our fist animal sighting – a wombat! It was such a cute little fella, just waddling along munching on grass. It was not afraid of us at all, so we all just stood there an marveled at it for several minutes. We quickly learned our favorite wombat fact – they poop in cubes! Little cubes of poop littered the trail and Alex made sure to point out every single pile.
We continued along the surprisingly well-kept trail, seeing more wombats, exotic plants, and eventually a crystal clear lake.
The Overland gives hikers the opportunity to do several side trails along the way. One of the most popular side hikes is on day one – Cradle Mountain. I didn’t read much about Cradle Mountain, but was told it was about a mile to the top. At this point in my hiking career, a mile uphill sounds pretty easy. AND we could leave our heavy backpacks at the bottom since we would be hiking back down. No problem!
I quickly realized that I grossly underestimated this ascent! Not to far into the climb, it became a literal rock scramble. With no clear path, we had to hand-over-foot climb across these massive rocks. There were definitely spots where one misstep would for sure be a broken bone or a long tumble down and I have a slight fear of heights. I was not very far away from turning back! But my fear of being the only one to chicken out overcame my fear of falling, so I pushed on. I was rewarded with a spectacular view from the top.
After Cradle Mountain it was only about an hour to our first campsite. The clouds had parted and we happily welcomed some sunshine. We snagged a really nice spot in a clearing where we setup camp, taking notice of all of the square turds surrounding us. It didn’t take long for us to spot another furry little wombat!
Day 2
We woke up to a beautiful day – sunny and warm. It was only a few hours of hiking to our next campsite which was right next to a big, very dippable, lake. So we decided to take off early to spend as much time as possible hanging out at the shore. We were at the lake by lunchtime and spent the whole afternoon at the shore swimming, relaxing, and enjoying the scenery.
After our day at the beach, it was time to set up camp. The designated tent camping nearby was on wooden platforms, which was a first for me, introducing a whole new challenge to setting up a tent!
The surrounding landscape was beautiful and the evening light was hitting just right. We basically wandered around as the sun set, in awe of everything we were seeing. I especially liked the pandani shrub – they looked fireworks of grass and like they belonged in a Dr. Seuss book.
Day 3
This was one of our longest hiking days which also provided the most diversity in landscape. We walked through buttongrass plains, rainforest, and eucalypt forest – all within 12 miles of each other! And surrounded with the view of distant mountains and deep valleys. The path through the rainforest was surrounded by some of the biggest ferns I have ever seen.
When we arrived at camp, we were greeted by another new animal sighting – a pademelon! This little hopper is basically a tiny kangaroo, but I am sure any animal expert would not appreciate me saying that.
This evening was actually the only rain we experienced during the whole hike and we were told that is incredibly lucky as this region usually gets slammed with storms. We slept through the worst of it and woke as the rain was starting to dissipate, but donned our rain gear before we head out just in case!
Day 4
Halfway through! And another relatively short day ahead of us meandering in and out of forests and across plains. Something we started to notice along the trail were the amount of dead trees still standing. It looked a bit strange as a stark contrast against the lush green trees and shrubs. We didn’t learn until after the hike that these trees are especially rot resistant and Tasmania does not have termites – allowing these dead trees to stand for decades. Very interesting!
I got a few photos of the facilities at this camping area. The designated camping along the Overland was always centered around a hut. These huts provided rudimentary bunks for hikers, overflow space (usually platforms) to set up tents, a shelter to cook food, and composting toilets. Some of the huts and privies were pretty rustic, but quite a few had been redone recently and were so nice! This one even had electricity, which felt very luxurious.
Day 5
Day 5 was mostly though rainforest with a couple of side trails to some nice waterfalls where we stopped for lunch. We also hiked past one of the original huts which was being renovated. We were so impressed with how much money was put into the infrastructure on this trail!
This campsite was my favorite. It was a beautiful day, and our camp platform gave us an amazing view of the surrounding mountains. We arrived with plenty of time to setup camp and lounge around while we soaked in some sun and appreciated the view.
Day 6
Day 6 & 7 were both supposed to be short days, with day 7 ending at a really nice lake with a beach. We made a last minute decision to hike past our original destination for the sixth night and go straight to the beach lake, allowing us a day off from hiking on day 7! Genius.
This hike was especially memorable to me because of all the animals we saw! It started with a cute little nest of birds at one of the huts – so sweet. Then as we moved on down the trail, we saw an echidna! Which looks like a porcupine but with a long snout – so cool!! And then a little further down the trail, we startled off a black tiger snake. That was actually a bit alarming because they are lethally poisonous, but it quickly slithered off the trail when it heard us coming. (I did snap a photo, you can just barely see it in the bush where I circled it in red).
The day of animal-spotting was capped off with a platypus sighting at the lake! That was especially cool because platypus are notoriously hard to spot and extremely shy. I managed to see its little duck bill and slick back before it dipped under the water. So special!
I was blown away when we got to the lake – it was gorgeous. And most hikers end their trek a few miles back at the start of the lake where a ferry picks up, so we had the whole beach to ourselves. Knowing we had the whole following day to relax made the arrival that much sweeter!
Day 7
The zero day at the lake was just what we were hoping for! We all thoroughly enjoyed, sleeping in, lounging around the beach, and dipping in the ice cold water.
We also managed to convince the ferry boat captain stop at our dock to take one of our friends to the nearby lodge to bring back pizza, chips, and whiskey. Dream come true.
Day 8
The final day was a short, easy hike along the lake shore. I didn’t take a single picture – all I could think about was the cold beer and cheeseburger waiting for me at the end. It’s pretty wild what a week of dehydrated food and granola bars can do to your desires – I was CONSUMED by the thought. Easily one of the most satisfying beers and burgers I’ve ever had.
We did it! And what a crew!
Hiking the Overland Track was such a special way to experience Tasmania. We were exposed to such a variety of landscapes and saw so many new species of animals up close – something I don’t think we would have experienced if we weren’t on foot. It was unforgettable.
Wandering Between Meals 
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