Another Overland Adventure!

 What a privilege to again be embarking on an Overland Track adventure. 

This is the fifth time we've come to Lutruwita/Tasmania to participate in a walk, which Sarah facilitates at the invitation of the Tasmanian Walking Company - the Overland Track, from Cradle Mountain to Lake St Clair. The theme is Sacred Geography: A Pilgrimage Without and Within. And here she is early in the journey at Melbourne Airport after a pre-dawn departure from Canberra - looking particularly facilitatory!!!

A delight of the whole adventure is the opportunity to spend a couple of nights in Launceston before we embark on the walk, and Waratah on York, an old colonial building at the top of town, is our favourite place to stay. How's this for a welcoming front door?

Visiting the Du Cane Brewery (started a few years back by a walking guide and named after a range crossed by the Overland Track) is another part of the pre walk routine. 

Great beer and pizza!

From Launceston it's a fifteen minute bus trip to the Red Feather Inn where we meet to brief, sort gear, share a meal and stay in preparation for an early start to Cradle Mountain. There are numerous gorgeous old buildings in Tassie and Red Feather is one of them. 

What's not to like about this place?

Some of the crew chatting after dinner and introductions.

Mapping our path for the next six days.

It was a cold, wet and windy start, much like last year. Sarah shared John O'Donhue's For The Traveller with everyone huddled in wet weather gear and we set off for a mist covered Cradle Mountain. 

Our first waterfall in a small rainforest gully. The first of many.

Cradle Mountain was mostly shrouded in mist but there were occasional glimpses of the flanks.

A wild weather safety pod. We've sought warmth and shelter here on more than one of these walks.

Later in the afternoon the weather lifted and Barn Bluff, affectionately known as Barney, came into view.

Scoparia flowers in various stages of bloom.

Lake Will, flanked by ancient pencil pines.

Lake Windemere with My Oakley in the background.

The enchanted forest. Keep your eyes peeled for elves and goblins.

Or maybe hobbits!!

Morning reflections on the helipad at Pine Forest Moor hut.

Sam and Dean, our trusty (cheeky) guides.

Entering a button grass plain.

Frog Flats - the lowest point in the track.

'... The leaf has a song in it.

Stone is the face of patience.

Inside the river there is an unfinishable story

and you are somewhere in it

and it will never end until all ends ...'

from What Can I Say? by Mary Oliver

Pelion plains.

A few of our happy crew.

Cushion plants on the early ascent of Mt Ossa (1618m)

Gradually she revealed herself to us.

The dolerite walls of Mt Ossa.

A view from the top. In every direction all you can see is range after range of hills - no roads, no houses, no powerlines, no vapour trails from aeroplanes, sheer natural beauty - wilderness.

Looking back to Mt Ossa in the late afternoon.

Cathedral Mountain from Kia Ora hut.

Forest sentinels.

Moisture, moss, mud, roots and trunks beneath a high leafy canopy.

Sarah amidst the trees - a perspective.

Thickets of myrtle

flickers of green and light an-

tique contented world.

--SJB--

Stepping silently

I cross Du Cane again;

a quiet watershed.

-- NRM --

Crossing the Narcissus River.

This fella was there to greet us when we arrived at Lake St Clair. A fine specimen who kindly allowed us to share his bank.

A cleansing immersion to end the walk. A bracing blessing.

Unloading from the ferry at the other end of the lake. 

All present and accounted for, and all in one peice!!

Relaxing with a few of the crew (suitably scrubbed up) back at DuCane Brewery.

With gratitude for another great experience of this ancient, wild, wondrous world.