Hiking the Overland Track

Map key

Overview map

Route summary tables

The Overland huts

Introduction

Location

History

Geology

Plants and animals

Planning your trip

When to go

Ways to hike the track

Hiking direction

Doing the hike with kids

Permits

Booking your hike

Signing in

Getting there

Accommodation and facilities at the start of the track

Accommodation and facilities at the end of the track

Accommodation and facilities on the track

Planning day-by-day

Using this guide

What to take

Food and water

Waymarking

Maps

Sidetrips

Health, safety and emergencies

Phones and Wi-Fi

The Overland Track

Stage 1 Ronny Creek to Waterfall Valley Huts

Stage 2 Waterfall Valley Huts to Windermere Hut

Stage 3 Windermere Hut to New Pelion Hut

Stage 4 New Pelion Hut to Kia Ora Hut

Stage 5 Kia Ora Hut to Bert Nichols Hut

Stage 6 Bert Nichols Hut to Narcissus Hut

Stage 7 Narcissus Hut to Cynthia Bay

Plant and animal guide

Plant guide

Animal guide

Appendix A Useful contacts

Appendix B Suggested clothing, gear and food

Appendix C What now? Other hikes in Tasmania

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I’m impressed... I really couldn’t fault [this guidebook]

I’ve walked the Overland Track three times, but many years ago, way before the internet and the myriad of reports and You Tube videos that are out there, you basically picked up a brochure at the visitor centre in those days and headed off. So, I was interested to read the book to see if there’s anything that I’d missed... I’m impressed... I really couldn’t fault it. Warwick’s put an awful lot of effort and research into this handy pocket guide (well, if you had a big pocket).

The first 70 odd pages are devoted to preparedness, to ensure that anyone embarking on this adventure knows what to expect, what equipment to take and Warwick directs readers to additional research. Having seen one walker on the trip drag out a Bunnings gas stove out of his pack at a hut, I cannot stress the importance of this section.

The next 70 odd pages gives a comprehensive overview of each stage of the Track, an elevation graph, topographical map with track route, named features and side trip routes. The inclusion of the topo map snippets eliminates the need to carry the full topo maps.

The final 70 odd pages cover Flora & Fauna – the usual animals and plants, but the author has listed them from smallest (animal) to largest, so if you come across a really small bird you don’t have to hunt through an alphabetical listing to find the right one. The flora is arranged according to where you find it (alpine, sub alpine, grassland etc). I believe this section of the book would be particularly helpful and might change my feelings about packing a book (which, up to now, I’ve never done).

There’s a lot of history included in the content, fleshing out the early explorers who found the route, the early pioneers and the huts along the track.

Size: At 204 pages it is substantially more than the other book that I found available (68 pages). At 115cm x 170cm and 12cm thick, it’s not too big to have in your pack for easy reference.

Weight: 230gm – a little weighty for those of us who are light-weight walkers, BUT, you’d want to refer to the content often so that would offset its weight.

I’d always said that I didn’t need to walk the Overland Track again, after all, three times was probably enough, however, having read Warwick’s book I’ve realised that I missed a lot. I had said that I would “raffle off” the hardcopy of the book on my Facebook page, and am regretting that now, it’s a book that I’d definitely like to keep in my library!

Adventures With M blog. Full review here: https://www.adventureswithm.com/2020/02/15/i-might-have-to-do-a-return-visit-to-the-overland-track/