Day 8: Narcissus Hut to Fergys Paddock (about 600 m from Cynthia Bay and Lake St Clair Visitor Centre)
Distance: 17km
Ascent/descent - pretty flat
Weather: Misty and a little cold in the morning, starting to rain later on during the day
Accommodation: camping Fergys paddock (free) ️ ⛺️
Food: dinner at the restaurant in Lake St. Claire ( burger 🍔 and chips 🍟, glass of wine🍷 $34, ice-cream🍦 $5.50 & hot chocolate ☕️ $6.50)
🥾 Final day of walking in the Overland Track!
I had a leisurely morning, chatting to the hikers who were going to be getting the ferry service.
🚤 I popped down to the Jetty and to be honest is it a pretty awesome way to finish the journey.
The view of the lake from the jetty was really spectacular and well worth walking out to. It only took a few mins.
I had a 17k walk and head of me around the right hand side of the lake.
After getting everything packing up it was about 11am before I left.
Lots of boardwalks, very muddy I’m sections, lots of fallen down trees, quite a few bridges and stepping stones. You don’t get to see the lake a huge amount. Just glimpses here and there through the trees.
The first point of interest was Echo Point Hut (6.5k) which is- very battered and old looking. It has a coal burning stove 🔥 .
It does has a little problem with rats🐀! So there is a metal storage container for you food and backpacks if you are staying the night. There is a jetty out to the lake and a cute little sand beach 🏝 . Very secluded and very quiet. An ideal place for some self reflection. It took about 1hr 30 to reach the cabin. I stayed for a few mins having some snacks and water.
From here it was another 10k to reach the end of the Track - Lake St Clair National Park…. The next highlight was the massive gum topped stringybark. I passed quite a few bridges and turn offs for other walks. I was excited to see the turnoff for Fergys Paddock where I would be camping tonight. There was only one other tent ⛺️ there so I had a good choice of places to set up. It was starting to drizzle so it was a race against time to get my tent and everything set up. I then wanted to do a little bit of exploring and head down to the end of the track.
I could have finished the track today but I didn’t want to rush it. This way I would have time to enjoy it and not stress myself out by having to reach the end by a certain time.
I walked around to the visitor centre (which was now closed) dropped off all my rubbish in the bins, including my walking boots which were now totally destroyed - no more miles left in them! and popped into the cafe mainly to charge my electronics and to get warm. It was a cool place to chill in. It was pretty expensive but bearing in mind how far away everything is from here and how little competition I don’t think it was horrendous. Plus I just half the price of everything and that’s roughly what it would cost in in GBP£.
There was no WiFi 😢 so I just chilled,had some dinner, before heading back to my tent for my final night of sleep on the track.
📸 my iPhone and back up charger had died at this point - so I wasn’t able to get many pics from this day!
Watch the vlog NOW!
📚 My hike is being sponsored by @ciceronepress - Cicerone has a new guide book which launched on the 15th Feb - with everything you need to know about hiking the Overland Track 😀 Head to www.cicerone.co.uk for more info.
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