trip
NEW Trip – Ladakh Mountain Biking AdventureView Trip Details

6 Days$3590USD

Activities
  • 6 days walking with medium sized backpack
Accommodation
  • 5 nights private hut accommodation
Meals
  • 5 Dinners
  • 6 Lunches
  • 5 Breakfasts
4
Introductory to Moderate

Traveller Rating

 

 
 

Trip highlights


  • Cradle Mountain Huts Overland Track is a trip of the Great Walks of Tasmania
  • Discover the rare beauty and extraordinary diversity of Tasmania’s world heritage-listed Cradle Mountain - Lake St. Clair National Park
  • Enjoy a steaming hot shower and fresh-baked afternoon tea, then enjoy the simple pleasures of life in a bush hut
  • Views into the heart of the World Heritage Area

This six day hut-based walk is a fabulous way to experience the iconic Overland Track within Tasmania's World Heritage Area. The walk extends from Cradle Valley to Lake St. Clair through a variety of spectacular landscapes and features a huge diversity of flora and fauna; glacial lakes, rainforests and craggy peaks which sit side by side with wombats, echidnas, wallabies and Tasmanian devils, who all make this region their home. Each evening's accommodation is in one of five ecologically sustainable private huts nestled away in this remarkable park. Just off the Overland Track, each hut is a haven to retreat to at the end of the day and features hot showers, a potbelly heater and twin-share rooms with comfortable beds. A hearty three-course dinner is prepared by your guides, with fine Tasmanian wine and cheerful conversation, a very pleasant way to relax after an active day.

Trip Code: CHO

Expand all | Collapse all

After breakfast you will be picked up from Chalmers Church (5a Frederick Street) in Launceston at 6:30am, or from the Quamby Homestead at 6:30am where you will then be transferred to Tasmanian Walking Company’s walkers base at The Red Feather Inn for your gear check and introductions. After your gear check & introductions, we journey to Waldheim in Cradle Valley. We will have morning tea, then set off on the track by 11am. By lunchtime we have walked through our first section of ancient temperate rainforest, have witnessed the dramatic glacially-carved Crater Lake and the steepest section of the whole Overland Track is behind us. The steep section is mostly stepped and takes us about an hour. It gets us onto Marion’s Lookout which (hopefully) offers famous and spectacular views of Cradle Mountain with Lake Dove at its base – worth every step. If the weather is fine, we stop for lunch by the peaceful Plateau Creek before continuing for about another 4 hours around the base of Cradle Mountain, out along the edge of a spectacular glacial cirque, then dropping into Waterfall Valley which we cross before arriving at our hut at the base of the towering Barn Bluff. Several hours of this day’s walk is over exposed alpine plateau which allows great views on a clear day, but in rough weather the wind howls over the land making for exciting, and sometimes challenging, walking conditions.

Meals:  L,D

The walking today is undulating with a few sections of exposed moorland. There are no large hills and the once notoriously muddy Pine Forest Moor is now a duckboard path over the mud! We do offer an optional side trip to Lake Will. We travel across plains where glaciers once sat and slowly moved, scouring out shallow tarns. Now we see plains of button grass with ancient Pencil Pines sitting with their roots in the water. Rising from the moors, the peaks of Cradle Mountain and Barn Bluff are behind us to the North, and the stately Mount Pelion West directly ahead.

Meals:  B,L,D

Today we begin with a long, slow descent around the base of Mt. Pelion West down to the Forth River before it plunges into the Lemonthyme Valley. After a break at Frog Flats by the Forth River, we have a long, gentle ascent out of the valley onto the beautiful Pelion Plains with outstanding views of Mount Oakleigh. There are many side trips in the Pelion Plains area with mountains all around, some excellent swimming holes, abandoned copper mines, or simply peaceful and humbling spots to rest quietly.

Meals:  B,L,D

Begin today with a climb to Pelion Gap where there are great views both back from the North and forward to the South. Today we allow extra time for the side trips from Pelion Gap. It’s a further few hours of gentle downhill from the gap to the hut, so a moderate day with the option to make it more challenging.

Meals:  B,L,D

This is a day of waterfalls and majestic forests. We depart Kia Ora hut and walk about an hour to Du Cane where a hut remains from the long-gone days of animal trapping. A fine spot to rest in the native gardens planted by trapper Paddy Hartnet’s wife during her long stints in the bush with her husband. From there, we wander through some of the oldest forest in the National Park with King Billy Pines as old as 2000 years. Here we are above the Mersey River, which descends steeply Northward towards Bass Strait. There are three major sets of waterfalls and we opt to visit one or more of these. We will probably take lunch down to enjoy beside one of the falls. During the afternoon, the group makes its way over Du Cane gap then descends beside the spectacular Falling Mountain to Windy Ridge Hut.

Meals:  B,L,D

Lake St Clair is Australia’s deepest natural lake, and as with most of this area, has been shaped by glaciers. The walk is mainly through cool temperate eucalypt forest, and birdsong is all around. We arrive at Narcissus at the Northern end of Lake St Clair in time for lunch before boarding the Idaclair cruise boat for the spectacular 17km cruise back to Cynthia Bay. There is a visitor centre at Cynthia Bay, and we usually have about half an hour to look around. The return trip to Red Feather Inn is through the trout fishing mecca of the highland lakes, descending the rugged Western Tiers to the broad plains of the Northern Midlands, and passing through the rural townships of Cressy and Longford. You should arrive at Red Feather Inn by around 5pm. There will be a shuttle bus departing at 6.00pm which goes via Launceston airport at approximately 6.15pm, arriving back at Chalmers Church Launceston at about 6.30pm. If you are staying at Quamby Homestead, a shuttle will be organised.

Meals:  B,L

Expand all | Collapse all

Arrive in Launceston and make your own way to the Red Feather Inn, your accommodation for the night. Please arrive no later than 5.30pm. There will be a briefing with your guide at 6pm, for introductions and a gear check.

Meals:  Nil

After breakfast we journey to Waldheim in Cradle Valley. We will have morning tea, then set off on the track by 11am. By lunchtime we have walked through our first section of ancient temperate rainforest, have witnessed the dramatic glacially-carved Crater Lake and the steepest section of the whole Overland Track is behind us. The steep section is mostly stepped and takes us about an hour. It gets us onto Marion’s Lookout which (hopefully) offers famous and spectacular views of Cradle Mountain with Lake Dove at its base – worth every step. If the weather is fine, we stop for lunch by the peaceful Plateau Creek before continuing for about another 4 hours around the base of Cradle Mountain, out along the edge of a spectacular glacial cirque, then dropping into Waterfall Valley which we cross before arriving at our hut at the base of the towering Barn Bluff. Several hours of this day’s walk is over exposed alpine plateau which allows great views on a clear day, but in rough weather the wind howls over the land making for exciting, and sometimes challenging, walking conditions.

Meals:  L,D

The walking today is undulating with a few sections of exposed moorland. There are no large hills and the once notoriously muddy Pine Forest Moor is now a duckboard path over the mud! We do offer an optional side trip to Lake Will. We travel across plains where glaciers once sat and slowly moved, scouring out shallow tarns. Now we see plains of button grass with ancient Pencil Pines sitting with their roots in the water. Rising from the moors, the peaks of Cradle Mountain and Barn Bluff are behind us to the North, and the stately Mount Pelion West directly ahead.

Meals:  B,L,D

Today we begin with a long, slow descent around the base of Mt. Pelion West down to the Forth River before it plunges into the Lemonthyme Valley. After a break at Frog Flats by the Forth River, we have a long, gentle ascent out of the valley onto the beautiful Pelion Plains with outstanding views of Mount Oakleigh. There are many side trips in the Pelion Plains area with mountains all around, some excellent swimming holes, abandoned copper mines, or simply peaceful and humbling spots to rest quietly.

Meals:  B,L,D

Begin today with a climb to Pelion Gap where there are great views both back from the North and forward to the South. Today we allow extra time for the side trips from Pelion Gap. It’s a further few hours of gentle downhill from the gap to the hut, so a moderate day with the option to make it more challenging.

Meals:  B,L,D

This is a day of waterfalls and majestic forests. We depart Kia Ora hut and walk about an hour to Du Cane where a hut remains from the long-gone days of animal trapping. A fine spot to rest in the native gardens planted by trapper Paddy Hartnet’s wife during her long stints in the bush with her husband. From there, we wander through some of the oldest forest in the National Park with King Billy Pines as old as 2000 years. Here we are above the Mersey River, which descends steeply Northward towards Bass Strait. There are three major sets of waterfalls and we opt to visit one or more of these. We will probably take lunch down to enjoy beside one of the falls. During the afternoon, the group makes its way over Du Cane gap then descends beside the spectacular Falling Mountain to Windy Ridge Hut.

Meals:  B,L,D

Lake St Clair is Australia’s deepest natural lake, and as with most of this area, has been shaped by glaciers. The walk is mainly through cool temperate eucalypt forest, and birdsong is all around. We arrive at Narcissus at the Northern end of Lake St Clair in time for lunch before boarding the Idaclair cruise boat for the spectacular 17km cruise back to Cynthia Bay. There is a visitor centre at Cynthia Bay, and we usually have about half an hour to look around. The return trip to Red Feather Inn is through the trout fishing mecca of the highland lakes, descending the rugged Western Tiers to the broad plains of the Northern Midlands, and passing through the rural townships of Cressy and Longford. You should arrive at Red Feather Inn by around 5pm. There will be a shuttle bus departing at 6.00pm which goes via Launceston airport at approximately 6.15pm, arriving back at Chalmers Church Launceston at about 6.30pm. If you are staying at Quamby Homestead, a shuttle will be organised.

Meals:  B,L


Map

Elevation

The map and elevation chart are for illustrative purposes only and meant to provide general guidelines.


Inclusions

  • 5 breakfast, 6 lunches and 5 dinners
  • Professional guides
  • 5 nights twin share accommodation in private huts
  • Limited selection of Tasmanian wine
  • Transport by private minibus
  • National Park and Overland Track passes
  • Boat transfer across Lake St Clair
  • Use of a backpack and Gore-tex jacket for the duration of the walk
  • Sleeping bags, pillows and a comfortable mattress at each hut
  • Sleeping sheet and pillowcase to carry with you

  • Travel to and from Launceston
  • Travel Insurance
  • Items of a personal nature - car parking etc
  • Snacks

Accommodation


Departure dates

Departs daily from 1 October to 1 May

Notes

HS
Holiday Season
H
High Season
DN1
A high season supplement applies for departures from 1 November to 30 April. A public holiday supplement applies on trips that overlap with a public holiday. This applies in addition to the high season supplement.
DN2
In addition to the World Expeditions deposit, you will also be required to pay an additional deposit of AUD$500 (paid in your local currency at the current rate of exchange). The balance of the tour price is payable 90 days prior to departure.
DN3
From 1 July 2024 the trip will include a night of accommodation at Red Feather Inn in Launceston making the trip a 7 day tour. See trip notes for details.

Dates don't fit?
Create a Private Trip

If you have your own group, talk to us about turning this itinerary into your own private adventure.

Priceper person from

$3590USD

Options & Supplements*
  • Single Supplement - standard season departureUSD$2130
  • Single Supplement - high season departureUSD$2230
*Prices listed are per person

Essential Information

Ready to book? Make sure you download and read the detailed Cradle Huts Overland Track trip notes which contains all the essential information you need to know before booking. Once you’ve booked, we will supply you with a Pre-Departure document which contains a detailed gear list and other important information to help you prepare for your adventure ahead.


Trip reviews


Other trip reviews


Why travel with us

Award Winning Adventures

Enhancing your journey with authentic experiences, genuine cultural exchange and real exploration are the focal points on all of our adventures. In 2019, we were crowned by our peers as the best in adventure travel at The Travel Awards in Sydney.

Thoughtful Travel

Our vision is to leave the world a better place by following our sustainable active outdoor travel charter. All our adventures are 100% carbon offset and our Regenerative 2030 Project aims to integrate ‘regenerative’ projects into every one of our global operations by 2030.

Ultimate Value

 When you book one of our adventures, you will receive quality services at the best prices with plenty of inclusions. There are no hidden costs, single travellers don’t pay more and you’ll enjoy many ‘extra touches’ that ensure your holiday is excellent value for money.

Similar trips

Suggested extensions

Join Newsletter
<img src='/portals/World%20Expeditions/Icons/brands/small/ADS.jpg' class='brandPopoverIcon' alt="Adventures South"> <div class='brandPopoverBrandName'>Adventure South</div>
Adventure South NZ is unrivalled in their geographic coverage, originality and overall quality of adventures holidays in New Zealand. Choose from walking, cycling, winter or multi-activity holidays, on either the North or South Island.
<img src='/portals/World%20Expeditions/Icons/brands/small/AWH.jpg' class='brandPopoverIcon' alt="Australian Walking Holidays"> <div class='brandPopoverBrandName'>Australian Walking Holidays</div>
Australian Walking Holidays specialises in small group guided walking adventures. Since 1982 we have been guiding small groups of travellers on Australia's finest walks across our tropical, coastal or red centre landscapes.
<img src='/portals/World%20Expeditions/Icons/brands/small/GCT.jpg' class='brandPopoverIcon' alt="Great Canadian Trails"> <div class='brandPopoverBrandName'>Great Canadian Trails</div>
Great Canadian Trails specialises in active holidays in Canada. With both guided and supported self-guided options available, our unique itineraries draw upon some of Canada's most inspiring parks, trails and landscapes from coast to coast.
<img src='/portals/World%20Expeditions/Icons/brands/small/HUM.jpg' class='brandPopoverIcon' alt="Humac Challenge"> <div class='brandPopoverBrandName'>Huma Charity Challenge</div>
Huma enables those with adventurous spirits to challenge themselves and make a difference for a cause close to their heart. Travel, fundraise and meet life-long friends on one of Huma's meaningful and unique challenges around the world.
<img src='/portals/World%20Expeditions/Icons/brands/small/WB.jpg?v2' class='brandPopoverIcon' alt="Walkers’ Britain"> <div class='brandPopoverBrandName'>Walkers' Britain</div>
Walkers' Britain (formerly Sherpa Expeditions) have specialised in walking and cycling trips in the United Kingdom and Europe since 1973. Explore iconic trails and destinations on a self guided or small group active holiday with Walkers' Britain.
<img src='/portals/World%20Expeditions/Icons/brands/small/WB.jpg?v2' class='brandPopoverIcon' alt="Walkers’ Britain"> <div class='brandPopoverBrandName'>Walkers' Britain</div>
Walkers' Britain (formerly Sherpa Expeditions) have specialised in walking and cycling trips in the United Kingdom and Europe since 1973. Explore iconic trails and destinations on a self guided or small group active holiday with Walkers' Britain.
<img src='/portals/World%20Expeditions/Icons/brands/small/TAS.jpg' class='brandPopoverIcon' alt="Tasmania Expeditions"> <div class='brandPopoverBrandName'>Tasmanian Expeditions</div>
Tasmanian Expeditions is the most experienced operator of treks and adventure travel holidays in Tasmania. We own and operate the most comprehensive range of adventure holidays available across Tasmania's varied landscapes.
<img src='/portals/World%20Expeditions/Icons/brands/small/UTX-new.jpg' class='brandPopoverIcon' alt="Utracks"> <div class='brandPopoverBrandName'>UTracks</div>
UTracks are the active European holiday specialists. Whether you prefer cycling or walking, 2-star or 4-star, small groups or self guided, land, river or sea – UTracks can help you to explore Europe exactly the way you want.
<img src='/portals/World%20Expeditions/Icons/brands/small/WYA.jpg' class='brandPopoverIcon' alt="World Expeditions Schools"> <div class='brandPopoverBrandName'>World Expeditions Schools</div>
World Expeditions Schools is our specialist division dedicated to organising tailor made overseas school group adventures. Specialists in Service Learning projects, choose from more destinations than any other school group provider.
<img src='/portals/World%20Expeditions/Icons/brands/small/YOM.jpg' class='brandPopoverIcon' alt="Yomads"> <div class='brandPopoverBrandName'>Yomads</div>
Yomads offers adventures for the 20s and 30s on six continents. Designed as a way to bring young and likeminded travellers together, Yomads caters to those interested in lightly structured and active trips that allow freedom to roam and explore.
<img src='/portals/World%20Expeditions/Icons/brands/small/ACT.jpg' class='brandPopoverIcon' alt="Australian Cycle Tours"> <div class='brandPopoverBrandName'>Australian Cycle Tours</div>
Australian Cycle Tours specialises in high quality self guided and guided cycling experiences in a selection of the most beautiful regions in Australia.
<img src='/portals/World%20Expeditions/Icons/brands/small/WEX.jpg' class='brandPopoverIcon' alt="World Expeditions"> <div class='brandPopoverBrandName'>World Expeditions</div>
The pioneers of original, worldwide adventure travel holidays since 1975
<img src='/portals/World%20Expeditions/Icons/brands/small/TJX.jpg' class='brandPopoverIcon' alt="Trail Journeys"> <div class='brandPopoverBrandName'>Trail Journeys</div>
Self-guided cycling experts on New Zealand's Otago Rail Trail and more
<img src='/portals/World%20Expeditions/Icons/brands/small/BMAC.jpg' class='brandPopoverIcon' alt="Blue Mountains Adventure Company"> <div class='brandPopoverBrandName'>Blue Mountains Adventure Company</div>
The original Blue Mountains canyoning, hiking, climbing and abseiling experts
<img src='/portals/World%20Expeditions/Icons/brands/small/GWNZ.jpg' class='brandPopoverIcon' alt="Great Walks of New Zealand"> <div class='brandPopoverBrandName'>Great Walks of New Zealand</div>
Explore New Zealand's most spectacular wilderness regions with the self-guided hiking experts
<img src='/portals/World%20Expeditions/Icons/brands/small/NAA.jpg' class='brandPopoverIcon' alt="North America Active"> <div class='brandPopoverBrandName'>North America Active</div>
USA Canada hiking & cycling tour specialists, choose from self-guided or guided trips