A Dangerous Business

Date: 30th December 2025

Start: Ronny Creek (km 0)

End: Waterfall Valley Hut (km 10.5)

Distance Travelled: 15.26 km

Total Distance Completed: 15.26 km

Song Currently Stuck in Head: Chiquitita by ABBA

Cloud Cover on Top of Cradle Mountain: yes

We are so back! It felt so good to be back out on the trails after… good grief, 14 months. Without spoiling too much, I think I’ve picked a good one.

First, a quick summary of what I got up to before starting the Overland. The climb up Mt Wellington in Hobart was lovely and the views were fantastic, up until I actually reached the summit and the entire mountain clouded in. The following day I boarded a coach up to Launceston and met up with the crew I’d be tackling this trail with: Daniel, Hamilton, and Bek. We had one day in Launceston to finish our preparations, which in essence means purchasing a whole bunch of gear at the last minute at Macpac because Bek happens to work there (more the boys, I just needed a bunch of freeze-dried meals). And exploring Cataract Gorge, of course.

Then, bright and early on a Tuesday morning, a shuttle bus arrived to take us all to Cradle Mountain, plus a number of other groups who I learnt through osmosis are all from different parts of Australia. The bus was pretty cramped so I wouldn’t call it the greatest road journey I’ve ever taken, but I can’t complain too much when it included a breakfast stop in the small town of Sheffield (not the UK one).

From there, we hit the windy roads leading up to the Cradle Mountain Visitor Centre, our first port of call on the Overland Track.

The centre isn’t on the track per se, but we needed to check-in, get our track passes and watch a mandatory safety briefing. Sadly, too many lives have been lost out here because people weren’t prepared for the alpine conditions that exist in the national park. Barely a week ago on Christmas Day, the track was covered in snow. Would’ve been an amazing sight to see, but if you don’t have the gear to survive those sorts of temperatures, hypothermia is a huge risk.

Today however, conditions were superb. Cloudy skies and cool temperatures welcomed us to the start line at Ronny Creek.

Barely 100 metres in, still in sight of the road, two wombats were grazing right next to the trail.

As is standard in alpine areas, the track was built with wooden boardwalk to protect the fragile environment underneath. An added bonus of this was it gave us a good chance to warm up to the hike before the hard climbs began.

The boardwalk did not last long, replaced with a rocky, well-maintained trail climbing towards Crater Lake. We were passed, and passed by a number of day hikers along the way, all of whom looked much more comfortable only carrying a handful of kilograms instead of the 15+ we all had.

Marions Lookout was the furthest I got to when I came here in 2022, hauling myself up the chains near the top to a spectacular view of the entire Cradle Mountain area. The mountain itself, Dove Lake, all the way back to Ronny Creek, all could be seen from that vantage point.

Looking off into the distance was a new sight for me. A mountain sticking prominently out of the rolling terrain around it.

That mountain happens to be Barn Bluff. It is climbable, and technically is a side trip meant for day 1, but what most people do – including my plan – is back track from the first hut on day 2 as the distance to the second hut isn’t all that far.

In the meantime, we climbed up a bit further to arrive at Kitchen Hut, a historic shelter that these days is only used in emergencies and unofficially as a pack storage for Overland hikers that want to go climb Cradle. A short shower came down on our approach to the hut which did make me a tad concerned for the climb, but it passed over without much damage.

One lunch break later and we began the climb. Hamilton quickly sped ahead (gotta love the combination of sheer confidence and unhampered impatience teenagers have) whilst the rest of us took things slowly. The climb starts easy at first but shifted rapidly from a standard dirt trail with rocky stairs to a very challenging scramble over boulders.

Marker poles and a decent amount of foot traffic helped guide the way up, but there were still plenty of sketchy moves and foot placements the further up we got.

Dan had gone on to join Hammy, leaving me with Bek to complete the final few hundreds metres of “track”. Fun fact: Bek’s doing the Overland with a torn ACL. Apparently her physio said it was ok, but I still think she’s a tad crazy.

Knee ligaments aside, the mountain for most of the day had been clear of clouds and we were expecting some excellent views from the summit. It makes sense then, that 5 minutes from the end, the clouds rolled in, giving us these “sights” from the top.

Going down was easily harder than the climb, but carefully we got through the boulder problems and returned to Kitchen Hut… just as another shower came through. Makes sense, these are the Tassie Highlands after all. Once it cleared we started the final 5km push to Waterfall Valley Hut, watching Barn Bluff getting slowly bigger on the horizon.

This part of the trail is very exposed and in “alpine” conditions hikers can quickly find themselves suffering from hypothermia. Roughly halfway to Waterfall Valley is this spherical emergency shelter. It’s very basic, all you get are walls, windows, and a door, but it keeps you out of the elements if things are dire.

Even for us in pretty decent conditions, we started to feel the temperatures drop. Layers came on and we swiftly walked across the ridge to the start of the descent to the hut.

Grateful for a dry trail but not so much for the strain my knees were under, the descent was done quickly and soon the hut came into view. Waterfall Valley Hut was rebuilt in 2022 and has many of the modern facilities you’d expect to find on a popular multi-day hiking route: large bunkrooms, dry room for wet gear, long drop composting loos (but no TP) and a large common area for eating and socialising.

Most beds has already been taken by the time we arrived. We quickly got settled and got around to making dinner. Now, I’ve done my fair share of these hikes by now so I’m very content to just sticking to the usual hiker fare. My friends… not so much. For the first night, Dan had brought beef mince (frozen overnight and gradually thawing in his pack all day), penne pasta and pasta sauce, all to make a bolognese for everyone. Frankly an insane amount of weight to be carrying, but it did look delicious. Oh, and he also brought jelly to make for tomorrow’s breakfast. The man is built different, what can I say.

The end of the night was spent playing 500, a game that I barely understand and regularly get yelled at by my partner for making a bad move. And yet I keep playing it; not entirely sure what that says about me…