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The Overland Track weather

Congratulations and many thanks to the Bureau of Meteorology!

Drum roll…… the Overland Track now has its very own weather forecast.

Yep, a specific seven day forecast for the Cradle Valley.  It includes forecasts for “the Overland Track area”, New Pelion Hut and Lake St Clair. Up until now we have always relied on the Mt Reid and Lake St Clair forecasts. That left about 80km in the middle!

Head off to the B.O.M. site to check it out – Cradle Valley forecast.

Because this is a very short note, we thought some indulgence with a series of “weather” photos taken along the Overland Track might be fun.

The Overland Track weather - Barn Bluff

Barn Bluff topped lightly in snow. This trip was in winter heading back to Cradle Mountain from the Walls of Jerusalum.

The Overland Track weather - a wet day

A wet day on the track as a walker tries to use a plastic poncho to protect his camera gear….

The Overland Track - weather - snow on track

This was a trip in July, lots of the track was like this. Snow shoes weren’t necessary but the snow and ice was very slippery.

The Overland Track Weather - ice

Speaking of ice, we loved these patterns.

The Overland Track - Lake St Clair in sun

This shot was on day five of a quick trip through from Cradle Mountain to Lake St Clair. We had not seen the top of ONE range in four days because of low cloud, rain and fog.  As we headed out on the boat, out came the sun!

The Overland Track - weather - camping on the beach at Lake St Clair

Echo Point, a top spot to camp when the lake is low.

The Overland Track - Lake St Clair
Ah, the last day on the track on a February trip. A few of us rinsed out some clothes or swam in them to freshen up. It was a beautiful day as we camped at Echo Point.

What sort of weather have you experienced on the Overland Track?

Have you had all days of sunshine, a mix of sun and snow or just terrible weather?

Shoot us a comment below or post your Overland Track weather images on our Facebook page. We would love to see them!

See and Learn with Cheap Car Rentals

Cheap car rentals will drive you like you’re at home to the largest City in Australia. The immense City of Sydney will make you see fantastic tourist destinations and learn many attractive outdoor adventures that will fully complete your holiday. Due to the vast land covering the city, you need not just a car to breakdown at the middle of your excitements but a completely equipped motorhome that will make your travel fast, comfortable, really safe and absolutely won’t be missing a thing in your itinerary.

Your first hundred miles from the airport will drive you across the famous Sydney Harbour Bridge. From this beautiful bridge, you will see the excellent view of the places you will be going into. Surely, your motorhome will give you a stop at the Sydney Opera House. Its breathtaking beauty and design will truly impress your creative mind. The architectural design amazes not only local tourist, but many well-known artists, architects and engineers worldwide.

Cheap car rentals will drive you to your next stop – that would be at Marramarra National Park. This place will make you feel the difference between real nature and the urban jungles in the cities. It is just the best place to take a real nature hike with endless verdant landscapes that will thrill your trek to the max. A brief stay at the coastlines will increase your excitement to wild surfing, sun bathing and jumping night at the bonfire.

The Sydney Aquarium – the heaviest tourist destination, will give you an up close experience with the wild and rare aquatic life. You will learn how native and endangered marine live together as you view them through over 160 meters of underwater tubes. This could be a great family and educational tour at the same time.

With Cheap car rentals, you will see, learn and love the many God-given gifts of
Sydney.

New walking shoes – stepping out in style!

We are approached quite frequently by businesses keen to promote their ideas and/or products via our website. We have a policy of not accepting everything that come our way for a number of reasons. For example, we don’t want anything not related to the outdoors filling up the site with junk.

Recently we were contacted by Natureshop.com, who loved Our Hiking Blog and when we perused their website,  we found we loved them.

Nature shop is a carbon neutral online retailer selling products with a strong environmental and social ethos. A quick glance at their about us page will make you aware of how committed they are.  They specialise in a variety of  footwear and gear such as
Merrell footwear or Teva sandals and shoes

Johanna Beach - Great Ocean Walk - Frank used Teva walking shoes for a few trips here guiding, they were excellent

They did offer us a product each from their extensive range and we are both very excited now that our parcels have arrived. I am looking forward to trying out my new Merrell Siren’s while Frank opted for a pair of Teva Event M’s. We will let you know how these styles go, with consideration to comfortable and durability, two of the essentials of good footwear.

In the meantime we suggest you have a look at Nature shop . It great that they have done all the research about how the products are made and that everything availabIe has been produced in an environmentally responsible manner. It’s also good to know in this age of consumerism that when we go shopping the some profits are use for good.

Oh, and they offer free return shipping and a long return policy.  Quite a positive approach.

Do you buy much gear online? How has your experience been?

We’d love to hear about your experiences.

Sue

Lake side for New Year’s Eve

It was very hot in Tasmania over the New Year period.  We usually hike “out of season” when the days are cool and the nights cold and clear. It usually rains or there is heavy weather.

On this trip, out back of Cradle Mountain to celebrate New Year, it was HOT! We struggled with the heat and reflections off the hot track.

looking at lake Rodway

Looking back at Lake Rodway after the climb out from Scott Kilvett Hut

It was fun, of course, great fun!

We headed into a Lake not too far from the Overland Track and set up camp. Being a bit circumspect here as the area is delicate and there are no toilets so it is not a campsite we would want to see overrun.

beach pano

Camping on the beach

It was late afternoon by the time we had set up and the sun was starting to drop thankfully.

The start of our New Years sunset fireworks

The start of our New Years sunset fireworks

We had carried in plenty of nibbles, some wine and a small bottle of Coke (to mix with the bourbon of course)

The sunset started to change

The sunset started to change

Alone on the beach, it was calm and warm. The mosquitoes decided it was time to wake up.

The cloud patterns were amazing

The cloud patterns were amazing

As the evening progressed we enjoyed a chicken curry and rice for dinner. Nice and simple for a quick bushwalking meal.

The show really started to include reds and orange

The show started to include reds and oranges

The red wine was tasting quite good but our friends, the mozzies, were very hungry. This was made worse by our small supply of bug repellent.

Sunset hit its peak, this is one of about 30 images

Sunset hit its peak, this is one of about 30 images

It was an early night with us, well asleep before midnight. We stayed for two nights at this spot, enjoying a relaxed New Years Day. The trip out to our hire car at Cradle Mountain was broken up by a night at Waterfall Valley. We met lots of great people heading off to walk the Overland Track. It was fun to watch them set up on their first night out.

All in all, a terrific way to spend New Years Eve as part of a short Tasmanian holiday.

What did you get up to on New Years Eve this year? Were you out and about with friends, camping, bushwalking or working?

Shoot us a comment below, we would love to hear what you got up to.

Oh, if you want to check out more photos of our Tasmanian holiday, Sue put up an album over at Our Hiking Blog facebook page. They include Maria Island, Hobart, camping and eating!

Off to Tassie for a couple of overnighters…..

Just a quick update to let you know we fly out tonight to our beloved Tasmania.

It has been a day of packing and trying to not exceed Jetstar’s baggage limits.  We have dehydrated a few meals but will do most of the shopping in Launceston tomorrow before we head up to Cradle Mountain.

The plan is for a couple of nights around Cradle for New Year, maybe at Scott Kilvett and then Lake Ball.

Then, back into civilisation and down to Lake St Clair and into Pine Valley.

We have hired a car and will end up at Hobart for…

Vegetarian hiking recipes

We love it when readers  share information and new ideas. Sonja contacted us recently about Food to Go and asked how many vegetarian recipes there were in the eBook. She is heads off on many multiday trips in Australia and was looking for some new  ideas.

There is a vegetarian backpacking food section in Food to Go but it is not massive. We sent Sonja a copy to check it out i.e. if she was not happy, she did not have to pay for it.

The upshot of these communications was we did a swap, Sonja received…

Cheap Car Rental Melbourne: The Best Tool for Enjoying Melbourne

Melbourne Car RentalWhen you’re visiting a place like Melbourne that’s got so much to offer in terms of fashion, food, culture and many other things, you need cheap car rental Melbourne.  First of all, you need something that you can use to get around to experience the whole place.  Another thing is that you need it to be cost effective so that you can go around spending money on other things that matters.  Yes, it’s the food, the culture, the fashion, everything in Melbourne that deserves top dollar.

Given a few days, three days at the most to spend in Melbourne, cheap car rental Melbourne will cut your traveling time to a fraction where you don’t have to wait around for the right bus to get somewhere and you also don’t have to share your ride with strangers.  It’s true that you can see a lot of Melbourne in a group tour but then, that would be a different experience altogether considering that you have other people to share it with and it might not even be your family.  When you’re going on a trip, alone or with someone, it’s more fun when it’s just you and the people you want to be with riding on the vehicle.

There might be something that you wanted to try out while you’re in Melbourne and this might cost you a hefty sum of money.  If it’s dining in a fancy and popular restaurant for example, you need to put some funds into that to ensure that you can enjoy your time there.  When your car rental is taking a big part of your budget, you might have to forgo this experience. With cheap car rental however, you can do anything and possibly everything you want in Melbourne because you some money to spend coming from your transportation savings.  Indeed, cheap car rental Melbourne is a great tool to enjoy your time in Melbourne.

Te Araroa foot trail – “because it was not there” – New Zealand

We have never set foot on New Zealand soil. We’ve  just never been able to make the time to tramp any of the wonderful trails that are available. It is something we need to fix in the future.

Rick from Best Hikes  just brought a new trail, planned to be officially opened later this year, to our attention.  It is well worth a look if you have some free time and a desire to walk a very long, tough track.

Te Araroa Trail map New ZealandStretching from Cape Reinga in the North of New Zealand to Bluff in the South,  the Te

Great Ocean Walk guiding

Phew,

Frank here. It has been a busy few weeks around the Our Hiking Blog household. Over the last four weeks I have led a seven, three and four day trip along the Great Ocean Walk in Victoria, Australia for Raw Travel. Today I am doing the preparation for my next 7 day trip commencing tomorrow.

It has been a fascinating experience. Having grown up in the region and explored many areas of the Great Ocean Walk for 40 years I have still been surprised by it’s magnificence.

This is a very different form of walking to what we are used to doing, i.e. it…