Overland Track - Day 4

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THE early morning was cloudy and windy as I got up and headed down to the helipad outside of Pelion Hut to watch the sunrise. The sun rose in the bush behind the hut, but gradually illuminated the steep cliffs of Mount Oakleigh as the cloud started to clear.

Returning to the camp, we had breakfast before packing up and continuing along the trail. Our packs were heavier today with the extra food supplies carried from the recent food drop. Leaving the camping ground, we headed through the scrubby forest following Douglas Creek upstream with a stop at a small cascade in the stream before continuing up the valley. The track alternated between forest track and boardwalk passing through grassy patches as we continued gaining altitude.

Dropping into one gully we stopped at a tall stand of trees, where our guide pointed out three trees, one being a crossbreed of the other two, and one of only seventeen specimens of this hybrid. From there the track rose moderately up the top of the valley for about half an hour before reaching the treeline with the forest giving way to scrubby heathland. A couple of minutes later we reached a large platform where a few packs were sitting from people who were walking along one of the two side tracks leading from here at the top of Pelion Gap at 1113 metres above sea level.

The track heading off to the right headed towards Mount Ossa, Tasmania's highest mountain. The track to the left headed to Mount Pelion East. We took the track heading up towards Mount Ossa exposed to the strong wind. Fortunately this part of the track was easy with a staired boardwalk heading up the ridge. Parts of the climb were quite steep, but eventually the track started to go around the base of Mount Doris where we were sheltered from the wind.

A little way along the track we reached a ledge under the steep mountaintop and a steep drop down into the swampy valley far below crossing over to some spectacular cliffs rising to mountains on the other side. This ledge widened and was covered in beautiful alpine plants draping the boulders fallen from the cliffs above. This area was known as the Japanese Garden, considered the prettiest part of the park and the highest point of today's trek at 1271 metres above sea level. Here we stopped for lunch in the shelter of the mountain looking over the mountains we will be exploring over the next day or two.

After lunch we headed a little further along the track which quickly deteriorated in quality as we headed further around Mount Doris to as far as a small saddle from where a very steep route rose about four hundred metres up Mount Ossa to pass between vertical columns of rock. A few people were braving this very steep track in the windy conditions today but this was as far as we got today. Looking through the saddle I could see Mount Pelion West, Barn Bluff and even Cradle Mountain was clearly visible.

From the saddle we headed back through Japanese Garden and started the long descent back to Pelion Gap, where we picked up our packs and continued heading along the track, now descending along a plateau over boardwalk, eventually entering the forest as the track started a two hundred metre descent to Kai Ora Hut where we settled in the group campsite and explored the nearby Kai Ora Creek and waterfall.

The old hut was very close to our camping ground, and now it was the ranger hut. A hundred metre track across the other side of a clearing led to the new hut very recently built. From its big verandah was an amazing view across to the vertical rock walls of Cathedral Mountain.

Returning to the camping ground for dinner, we later headed back to the hut to watch the sunset watching the bright colours of the sun diminish from the rocky face of Cathedral Mountain and the high clouds above turn pink before the sky darkened.