Honeymoon: Phase Six: Overland Track: Day 4

To Jacqueline's chagrin, we found ourselves up bright and early again. We were first to hit the trail, happily with most of our gear dried out from the day before. We had another beautiful day as we headed back into our rainforest topography. Jacqueline was a bit unhappy to see that we got passed by yet another group of high school age kids, but once we got to the Du Cane Hut, they were taking a break, so we passed them easily. This day was highlighted by amazing waterfalls. They were only side tracks on the trail, but I could not imagine hiking the Overland Track and allowing yourself to miss these waterfalls. I think it may be because Jacqueline and I come from the desert, but we were not expecting to see such a powerful sight. Once we dropped our packs, hiked down the trail, and took the right fork for Ferguson Falls, we were in for a sight. 

The trail took us to where we were standing right next to Ferguson Falls as this single torrent of water came rushing out of the cliffs. It was tough to get a good picture and frankly it could not all be fit in there. We left with big smiles on our faces as we looked for our next falls, D' Alton Falls. This was an absolutely amazing sight! I am going to post a video for the first time because frankly it is tough to imagine or describe the power and amount of water rushing over multiple tiers. There are rarely

places in the backcountry where I can just sit, stare, and soak it all up, but this was definitely one of those spots. We left very happy we took that side trip as we picked up our packs and hiked the short distance to our next side track. This time the trail lead to Hartnett Falls. Hartnett Falls was unique in that the trail lead us to the top of the falls. It is amazing how calm that water is at the top where it leads you to stand one step away from death. It is also funny how calm Jacqueline is with that even though it should be a height that is scary, but when looking at it, I guess does not seem real. We never got a good picture of Hartnett as the trail put us in a poor spot for a shot, but it was still worth seeing. We continued on the trail and ran into our friend Sebastian from Germany about to head down to check out Hartnett Falls. 

We talked to him a bit where he informed us something that we should have already known. The bus does not pick up in Lake St. Clair on Wednesdays. All this time we had been thinking that we could get a bus ride out if we got out a day early. This sent our thoughts into motion and our conversation turned to making it out tomorrow morning. We pondered it as we spotted an echidna burrowing in a log. We thought we should just go with the flow and see where it lead us as we climbed a short uphill section to the Du Cane Gap. 

The view from here was awesome but it was one of those all absorbing sorts of views that come from such places as Yellowstone and Toroweap, where a picture can't do it justice. The trail was slow going as we made our way through the forest to the Windy Gap or Bert Nichols Hut. From here we found a nice lunch spot on one of the tent pads with spectacular views of the Acropolis and the other peaks above Pine Valley.

 We did not even think of stopping for the night here as it was still only 1pm. We ran into some Aussie from Sydney on his way to do some crazy off trail hike that would take him from ridge to ridge across the peaks surrounding us. We wished him good luck as we tried to enjoy our lunch of old moldy bread and most likely bad meat. 

Mine was okay, but when Jacqueline gave me part of hers, I knew something was wrong with it. It seemed that our lunch had gone bad and there was not too much that we could do about it. This left Jacqueline's stomach uneasy and she had to make an emergency pit stop. That confirmed it and we could not eat that lunch again. Originally I wanted to head up to Pine Valley for a night. When we got to the junction, though, we turned it down knowing that our rations would probably run out before long. Jacqueline's feet were getting very sore as a new problem of using the tennis shoes had left her feet getting sore very easily. It seemed that the Narcissus Hut could not come soon enough and it did not. Along the way, I got to see a tiger snake and we both got to cross the unnecessary 1 person load limit swing bridge along the way. Sebastian passed us as I just had to keep my ornery bride moving. Finally the hut came in sight and we looked for a site. All the tent spots had been taken by an Asian family, the high school group, and Sebastian. We finally settled on camping right behind the ranger's quarters. This seemed perfectly safe as we had not seen a track ranger the entire trip. This was somewhat frustrating considering we paid $300 for our passes. We debated frequently whether that was money well spent. The condition of the trails and lack of park personnel did not seem to show it. The conditions of the huts, though, one could see where the money went. The Bert Nichols Hut was seriously nice, but Narcissus was rather run down. Thus our site behind the ranger's cabin was much nicer than it would have been inside the dilapidated hut. We still cooked our dinner in there where we let Sebastian know that we would be his competition for a spot on the supposedly full bus, information Sebastian had found out with his cell phone. I convinced Jacqueline that the only way we would make it was to awake at 5am and hit the trail at 6am, as a five hour hike awaited us. To add to the enjoyment an early start would bring, as we settled down to rest, the rain began to sprinkle down upon the tent.