Table Of Contents
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Other parts of this trip report:
- Part 1: Australia versus New Zealand
- Part 2: Before the walk [Melbourne photos, Hobart, Launceston]
- Part 3: Overland Track day 1, Cradle Mountain [photos]
- Part 4: Overland Track day 2, Windermere [photos]
- Part 5: Overland Track day 3, Pelion [photos]
- Part 6: Overland Track day 4, Kia Ora [photos]
- Part 7: Overland Track day 5, Bert Nichols [photos]
- Part 8: Overland Track day 6, Narcissus [photos]
- All Overland Track photos
I was worried about running ahead of the photos, but I guess I don’t need to worry about that anymore; there is just one more small return day to go. Actually, as I write this, I already have the day 4 writeup done. I accidentally wrote out of sequence, but I don’t really want to post out of sequence. So here’s day 3 of the track.
Day 3: Windermere Hut to New Pelion Hut
It’s not in the booklet, but this was mud day. We’d had lots of boardwalk for the first two days, but they don’t quite cover the entire 65km of the Overland Track, as we found out on this day. The pictures in the booklet for this day include some boardwalk and also some terrain that I’m pretty sure was muddy when we went through but dry in the picture. And I think we went through on some of the driest days of the year.
(If you read between the lines, you can find some hints: “mainly natural `gravel’ surface with some planking and cordwood”, emphasis mine. “Lowest section of the Overland Track” and “myrtle-beech rainforest”).
There are few side trips on this day. There is a 5 minute side trip to Forth Valley, and a 30 minute side trip to Old Pelion Hut, which we did not take. And it is possible to go to Mount Oakleigh after reaching New Pelion Hut. But it’s already a 5-7 hour day (16km, +242m, -380m) and Oakleigh adds 4-6 hours. There is enough daylight for fast walkers, but barely. It took us 5.5 hours moving time/7 hours total time without side trips.
Morning
There was legit mist in the morning when we got up at 6:45. Cool views with the rising sun and the mist. Went out to look for birds and platypuses back near Lake Windermere, but all we saw was a black currawong. We went back to the hut and then actually left around 7:30.
Walking through swamps
The next part of the day was under blue sky through buttongrass moorland. Low clouds did persist, but more of an undercast. We had tarns and mountains (still Barn Bluff, as well as Pelion West). Also, for some reason, two shovels that presumably staff left on the track.
The Forth Valley view is a bit different from mountains and moorlands. It’s a valley. We heard, but did not see, parrots.
Once we started losing elevation and getting into the forest, the track got muddy. Halfway through, we reached Frog Flats. I washed my shoes around there, hoping there wouldn’t be more mud. There was more mud.
After the lowland forests, we got back up to the moorlands again, now with Mount Oakleigh in view.
Fauna and fungi
Despite the paucity of birds in the morning, we did see more birds at New Pelion Hut, including a good view of a nearby noisy yellow wattlebird, superb fairywren, and yellow-throated honeyeater. It looked like a bird but it was actually silver banksia. And we saw a broad-toothed mouse.
We saw a lot of fungi on this day, though it’s hard to identify. There is a Facebook group to help ID Tasmanian fungi but I’m too shy to post all the pictures there. When you upload fungi to iNaturalist, usually nothing happens.
Flora: some mountain pinkberry. Apparently those aren’t the edible berries. If I recall correctly, the purple ones are the edible ones.
