Overland Track - Day 5

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I HEADED to the Kia Ora hut through the clearing at first light. The eastern sky was brightly coloured with the dawn light to the right of the black silhouette of Cathedral Mountain. Resting on the balcony, I watched the sky continue to lighten in anticipation of the rising sun. Hazy cloud suddenly appeared from the mountains behind the hut. Crossing the sky, they quickly enveloped the front of Cathedral Mountain softening the silhouette.

The sun rose through the thickening low cloud shining brightly on the slopes of Castle Crag, which we will be going around today. Returning to the camp we had breakfast and packed up. Some of the cloud had cleared by the time we left looking like a sunny day, but not for long. The sky quickly became overcast as we started hiking through the forest.

About an hour out from Kia Ora, the cloud largely cleared as we reached a clearing at the historic Du Cane Hut. The old timber hut was heavily leaning downt he hill but still standing. Heading inside part of the floorboards had come up and were badly damaged, but the rest of the floor was safe to walk on. The hut was built in 1910 by Paddy Hartnett from a huge King Billy pine tree growing here. He set it up as a hunting headquarters as the only hut between Pelion and what is now the end of the track. The hut had the informal name "Windsor Castle".

After resting at Du Cane Hut, we headed down into the forest passing through some of the best bush along the entire track. We gradually descended for about three quarters of an hour before reaching a junction where numerous packs were sitting. We dropped our packs and started heading down the side track towards the Mersey River, which we had been roughly following upstream since shortly leaving Kia Ora this morning (though we were quite a long way into the bush to have any glimpses of it). The terrain quickly steepened as the track sidled its way through the moss covered beech trees. After fifteen minutes of zigzagging downhill over the rooty track, we reached another junction with a small wooden signpost. We headed to the left reaching the very pretty Dalton Falls on the Mersey River a short time later.

The waterfall tumbled down a couple of leaps on the other side of the gorge. The sky was overcast again making for ideal long exposure photography. Here we rested at a ledge lookout overlooking the waterfall. After watching the waterfall, we headed back up to the junction and took the other track down to Fergusson Falls. The track reached to within a few metres of the waterfall draping down the rock face. Here we rested and watched the waterfall, and I got some good long exposure shots here.

We headed back up the rough track to the main junction where we had left our packs. Without lingering, we put our packs on and continued along the main track continuing to go parallel to the river gradually rising until we reached another junction. Here we took off our packs again and started walking along the side trail towards the top of Hartnett Falls where we found a large dry slab of rock beside the river under the shelter of a tree and cooked lunch. Light rain had started falling but the tree completely sheltered us.

After lunch we returned to the junction, collected our packs and started the climb towards Ducane Gap, our final mountain pass on this trek. The dense forest gradually thinned as we gained altitude in the valley between Castle Crag and The Gatepost. The mossy forest became scrubby heathland with many interesting subalpine plants with different flowers. The track continued until we reached an old tree with a wooden signpost nailed to it indicating we were at the top of the 1070 metre high Ducane Gap. This marked the main range dividing the rivers heading to the North (Mersey River flowing to Devonport on the northern coast) and the rivers heading south (The Narcissus River flowing into Lake St Clair and continuing at the Derwent River reaching the southern coast at Hobart.

From Ducane Gap, the track started a moderate descent through the mossy forest towards the bottom of the valley. The gnarled trees took some very interesting formations, including one with huge bumps looking like a wombat going through its trunk. The terrain in the dense cloud forest gradually moderated crossing over a small creek before suddenly reaching the Windy Ridge group campsite where we set up in amongst the beech forest.

Once set up I returned to the track and continued a few more minutes before reaching the Bert Nichols Hut, a large boxey hut down below the hut. I explored its huge rooms and caught up with some of the people from other groups I've gotten to know on the track over recent days. The hut overlooked a small clearing with the forest and towering peaks of The Acropolis, Mount Geryon and Mount Massif above it.

Returning to the camp, we had dinner before settling in for the night under the overcast sky ready for an early start tomorrow.