Bushwalk Australia

How wet and muddy will the track be this time of the year? I walked here in May and it was very muddy into frog flats and up to Pelion. With all the snow and rain i am concerned at how the track is faring. I would like Anyone who has walked recently/or this time of the year to enlighten me what to expect!

Hi

Also interested as I am planning 4/5 days on the OT from the 30th. After the AFL Grand Final and before the booking season starts.

dazintaz wrote:How wet and muddy will the track be this time of the year? I walked here in May and it was very muddy into frog flats and up to Pelion.

I'd expect it will be fairly similar, maybe worse.

Sounds like it will be busy up to 30th September, called P&W Cradle MT and was told its very busy out there this month. $200, what does one expect in these tough times.

dazfromtaz wrote:Sounds like it will be busy up to 30th September, called P&W Cradle MT and was told its very busy out there this month. $200, what does one expect in these tough times.

Spot on. And watch out for the roll on effect.... people will go to the Walls, or South Coast... or worse, the Arthurs to avoid paying the fee. The first 2 areas will get trashed, and the last will kill underprepared inexperienced people who were just trying to save a buck heading into a place that's beyond they're ability.

ILUVSWTAS wrote:

dazfromtaz wrote:Sounds like it will be busy up to 30th September, called P&W Cradle MT and was told its very busy out there this month. $200, what does one expect in these tough times.

Spot on. And watch out for the roll on effect.... people will go to the Walls, or South Coast... or worse, the Arthurs to avoid paying the fee. The first 2 areas will get trashed, and the last will kill underprepared inexperienced people who were just trying to save a buck heading into a place that's beyond they're ability.

Bit of doom and gloom there Mark especially the words "trash and kill"
There are many other areas than can be accessed that you may have excised from your mind since they are under a peak to bag
corvus

But Gerry, does the average Overland walker know of those places that we do?? And im guessing I probably know of one or 2 more than you.

No, they dont. They only know of the ones mentioned in the certain guide books....

Edit - Have you done the South Coast Gerry? It's already trashed. It's borderline disgusting in places.

I would imagine if the average O'Tracker choose the South Coast many wouldn't walk again. It is a good point, the OT is not muddy At All in comparison. Given that many try to walk the track now without paying maybe (with extended permits/cost) expect pressure on those around the walls.. aka permits there as well..?

Daz, it will be at least as bad. The muddy places can dry out after with a week or two without rain.. in Feb perhaps for a 'dry boot' experience.

$200? as well as a fee for entering the park....
you can do a great walk in nz for that much or less less and those huts have gas and cookers provided and a guaranteed bunk bed, high grade track and scenery at least as comparable for that money.... if you're camping you pay a fraction of that...

i was looking at the overland track and flagged it for those reasons. lot cheaper to do part of it from both ends on a holiday pass, save the $200 for something else.... and $3000 for the guided walk? for that price you could fly to nz and two at least a couple of guided walks....

Yes Wayno, but this is Tassie!! Maybe a basket case economy but there are worse

New Zealand is different : you guys have a culture of "Great Walks", you don't have only a couple to choose from. In Tasmania, if you're not experienced, the OT is pretty much all there is for a multi-day hike with refuges, at least for the common tourist, since it's advertised ad nauseam. And I guess the more people there are, the more maintenance the track needs (don't know if it justifies the 200 $ cost though, it may also be a way to discourage people from coming...). In NZ tourists are more diluted, since there are several great walks.

Anyway I have a friend who did the OT last year, and who will be doing several NZ great walks during the Christmas' Break, so I'll ask here to compare the two =)

Hi

The OLT is not too bad in most places but there are a few short sections couple of hundred metres that need a lot of work but basically it is ankle deep mud at most on the main track even in the worst places. As for fees, well enough has been said on that already. But it does cover some great country and is a safer/comfortable bet than other places in Tassie. A walk that can enlighten an experience walker's year and not turn a novice off walking providing that they follow the basic Park guidelines on gear.

Pity more people new to walking do not take the guided tour option as their first multi night Tassie experience. Too many suffer bad experiences due to rather simple things that a guided tour would bring them up to speed on. You can chose from "luxury" hut based to more "real" walking options. We struck two Victorians at Scott-Kilvet on the weekend that fortunately last year had decided to experiment with that as an overnight walk last year and found out that they were horribly under-prepared. This year was a remake to find out if they had got the gear right. Largely they had but still got almost blasted off the track when doing Barn Bluff as a day walk on Saturday proving that Cradle can be a fickled as ever. On Sunday it would have been near perfect weather for that jaunt. Oh, yes, they were originally fitted out by Kathmandu sales staff so were given the wrong advice and flogged useless junk that they were in the process of dumping. Please Kathmandu train your staff, some are good as in Launceston, but in Devonport the advice is so bad to be almost criminally negligent.

Any alpine area in Tassie can "kill" you if unprepared but normally it just makes for a very unpleasant experience. Often the weather can make or break a walk. I did Frenchmans Cap and found virtually none of the much hyped Southern mud. Did the Western Arthurs and while physically taxing (broken ribs three weeks beforehand in Ent parting MTB event) it was not any more extreme than a bad weather event on Cradle. Do tend to think that the Southerners over hype things in their part of the world.

The speed which weather can change in Tassie is something that it hard to get across unless you are a NZ or Northern European subject to sea driven weather systems. Two weekend back walked out from Blue Peak in misty weather, that went to rain and then wind driven rain. Unpleasant but at above ten degrees not going to "kill" you before you got to the car but then it snowed and dropped to minus in no more than five minutes and these conditions then it does become dangerous unless properly equipped.

Cheers

I'm looking forward to the Overland Track. I wouldn't mind doing the walk twice in the next year or two, Once during the warmer months and back again for winter, early or late winter, I want to see snow. I figured would be best to do the walk first in warmer months, so I know what to expect in regards to the terrain in cooler conditions. First trek in warmer weather will be solo, For the colder trek, I'll be looking for other's to join me with more experience than me in the snow. As I've never seen snow in my life, It's always a dream of mine to walk through snow.

Phillipsart wrote:I'm looking forward to the Overland Track. I wouldn't mind doing the walk twice in the next year or two, Once during the warmer months and back again for winter, early or late winter, I want to see snow. I figured would be best to do the walk first in warmer months, so I know what to expect in regards to the terrain in cooler conditions. First trek in warmer weather will be solo, For the colder trek, I'll be looking for other's to join me with more experience than me in the snow. As I've never seen snow in my life, It's always a dream of mine to walk through snow.

We all love the snow but after an hour or so rather over it. The trick with the OLT is what ever weather you truly desire for you will likely get the reverse

Cheers

i was walking up a mountain in nz once in a rain storm.... i was wearing glasses, all of a sudden i couldnt see anything. white out??? glasses fogged up?
i wiped my glasses and found they had a layer of ice, on the outside and inside of the lens,, i looked down, all the water on my storm gear had turned to ice.....

Ent wrote: Did the Western Arthurs and while physically taxing (broken ribs three weeks beforehand in Ent parting MTB event) it was not any more extreme than a bad weather event on Cradle. Do tend to think that the Southerners over hype things in their part of the world.

I don;t think anyone's ever said that the weather gets worse down south, just that the South West in general - and the WArthurs in particular - is even more changeable than elsewhere. The WArthurs have their own microclimate, you can't rely on forecasts or observations from anywhere for the weather there. It just does what it does.

north-north-west wrote:

Ent wrote: Did the Western Arthurs and while physically taxing (broken ribs three weeks beforehand in Ent parting MTB event) it was not any more extreme than a bad weather event on Cradle. Do tend to think that the Southerners over hype things in their part of the world.

I don;t think anyone's ever said that the weather gets worse down south, just that the South West in general - and the WArthurs in particular - is even more changeable than elsewhere. The WArthurs have their own microclimate, you can't rely on forecasts or observations from anywhere for the weather there. It just does what it does.

Just ignore him. He's just trolling.

Yeah, but sometimes it's fun to pretend to take it seriously.

north-north-west wrote:Yeah, but sometimes it's fun to pretend to take it seriously.

ha.. well, kinda sorry i brought this up again.. i did try to steer it towards the kiwis er..
anyhow, it was September, its gone

wayno wrote:$200? as well as a fee for entering the park....


i was looking at the overland track and flagged it for those reasons. lot cheaper to do part of it from both ends on a holiday pass, save the $200 for something else.... and $3000 for the guided walk? for that price you could fly to nz and two at least a couple of guided walks....

Crazy isnt it. Now we've got the 3 craps walk as well..... Most people I know just do sections of the OT in season, or walks off the side of the OT, it avoids the crazy fee.

I think it's fair enough given the quality of services on track to charge people to use it. Any concerns should be directed to the government re funding Parks Tas.

Wolfix wrote:I think it's fair enough given the quality of services on track to charge people to use it. Any concerns should be directed to the government re funding Parks Tas.

yeah but given the quality of service it doesnt compare what you can get for your money in NZ. $200 plus park entry free and all you might get is a spot to pitch your tent, for that in nz you can do a great walk for $15 a night on a track thats better quality than the OT...

But in Tasmania you get highly trained Parks staff. For example; I drove past my local football oval this morning where there was about 20 P&W vehicles and running around the oval I spied half a dozen parks staff with full looking packs on!!! Do you get that sort of dedication in NZ??

As I said, the issue is clearly a lack of funding to Parks Tas. No such problem in NZ, where they have done things properly up until very recently.

Wolfix wrote:As I said, the issue is clearly a lack of funding to Parks Tas. No such problem in NZ, where they have done things properly up until very recently.

wrong, the govt just carved 50 million from the annual doc budget, DOC havent finished culling staff after shedding a 100 jobs so far....
the question is is tas syphoning off the money from the OT to other areas instead of just using it to run the track.
DOC here are trying to remove huts and tracks all over the place so they dont have to maintain them, but they maintain the service of the great walks from the money they make from people walking them...

if the tas parks are anything like DOC they will be making a LOT of money from the guided walk company as well to help augment the cost of maintaining the track..

wayno wrote:the question is is tas syphoning off the money from the OT to other areas instead of just using it to run the track.

No, they'll be syphoning off the money from OLT to pay for executive car parking.

ollster wrote:

wayno wrote:the question is is tas syphoning off the money from the OT to other areas instead of just using it to run the track.

No, they'll be syphoning off the money from OLT to pay for executive car parking.

Well, you cant expect BMW's to drive on gravel can you????

wayno wrote:

Wolfix wrote:I think it's fair enough given the quality of services on track to charge people to use it. Any concerns should be directed to the government re funding Parks Tas.

yeah but given the quality of service it doesnt compare what you can get for your money in NZ. $200 plus park entry free and all you might get is a spot to pitch your tent, for that in nz you can do a great walk for $15 a night on a track thats better quality than the OT...

I believe someone did the sums on here, OT in comparison to The Milford Track, start to end including transport. Milford was as dear or more?
Higher end, catered huts aren't owned by parks here so there just isn't the income (yet).