Loading ...Tasmania – Lake St. Clair
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Doug's Republic as far as the eye can see
For those doing the Overland Track, Cradle Mountain and Lake St. Clair merge into one experience. That was my original intention. When the Overland Track didn’t materialize, I spent a few days in the Cradle Mountain section of the park and another two days driving from the northern section of the park (Cradle Mountain) to the southern (Lake St. Clair).
Cradle Mountain and Lake St. Clair are billed as one park, but they’re really two. Had I actually done the Overland Track, the one obstacle I would’ve faced was my car. There are public buses but they don’t run everyday and, as I recall, when they ran they ran once a day and at different times on different days. I would’ve either had to drive to Lake St. Clair’s park entrance, leave my car behind after removing all the trekking materials I required, and then hitch/bus it back to Cradle Mountain to begin. Or else leave my car at Cradle Mountain, finish the trek, and then hitch/bus back by Tassielink to Cradle Mountain at the end. While the distances between the parks is not far in absolute kilometers, I spent two days traversing that distance in my car, stopping along the way at scenic attractions.
Lake St. Clair has its own range of day treks, and I did them all. But all that trekking, one an all-day eight hour ordeal, didn’t cover up the guilt I was feeling from forsaking the Overland Track. In February, when I was here, Overland Trackers can trek from north to south. All trekkers terminate in the Lake St. Clair region, and I met plenty coming off the trail. The usual adjectives of “fascinating” and “amazing” came up. I found out that availability of space in the huts was ample. I would not have had to cart in a tent at all. I wish I had gone for it, but now, at Lake St. Clair, it was too late.
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