Bert Nichols to Narcissus
Overland Track
The Hike - Waking up on the penultimate day of my Overland Track adventure, today definitely had the feeling that things were coming to an end. With the option to skip the walk around Lake St Clair and take the ferry from Narcissus Jetty to finish, our group would unfortunately be splitting up. Having said some of our goodbyes the previous night, I didn't even hear Max and Laura get up and depart at 5am, even though they were sleeping right next to me. They had a 9:30am ferry to catch, so were keen to hike the 10.5km journey with a bit of time to spare.
Waking up a bit later, the older style huts are much better at keeping out the light with their cosier and darker construction. For me today, I would be hiking to Narcissus Hut, and then around Lake St Clair to the Echo Point Campsite. A few others were doing the same, including David, Alice, Obi and Rose, along with Rob and Renee, and the group of young-uns that we had caught up to at New Pelion. With no more mountains to climb (for my itinerary at least), and a lot of downhill/flat walking to get through, there was no rush this morning. Joining everyone in the communal kitchen, there was a lot of exchanging of details between everyone, as this was most likely going to be the last time some of us ever saw each other. Even though there was two full days of walking left for me, it did feel like this was the last day, as there was a bit of chatter about what food everyone was going to order at the Lake St Clair Lodge.
I was trying not to think about it too much, as I had started to feel a bit hungry by this stage, unusual for me on a multi-day hike, as I typically lose my appetite. Eventually I headed back to the room and started the process of packing everything up, not my favourite part of this hiking malarky. Ready to depart just after 9am, we said some almost final goodbyes to Laura and Ritchie, and it was time to head off to Narcissus. I'm going to break this day into two parts, as Narcissus is a main point of the track where you can cut your trip short, or continue along to Echo Point, and also because I took a lot of photos this day, so one post was going to be very long. It looked like the fine weather was going to continue, with bright blue skies all around, apart from a hint of cloud and mist hanging around over The Acropolis in the distance.
The walking to start the day was very similar to what you experience on the previous day heading uphill towards the Du Cane Gap, and this was alright with me. The dry sclerophyll forest looks much better in the sunshine, and there is usually a much better wildflower display, although this is typically offset in the temperate rainforest with more fungi. The first part of the day was getting to the Pine Valley Junction, where you can turn off and head up to Pine Valley Hut to hike both The Acropolis and The Labyrinth. My initial itinerary had me hiking from Bert Nichols, up to do both mountain side trips, before hiking on to Echo Point. While the distance would be a manageable 33km if I departed early enough, I soon realised that this might be too much, and given my relative lack of fitness leading up to this trip, it was the right decision.
Given the ferry can drop you off at Narcissus, I can return at a later date and do this section as a 2-3 day trip, taking in some other climbs while I'm at it. Enjoying the relaxing day ahead of me, the terrain sees you basically hike downhill from Bert Nichols all the way to the shores of Lake St Clair. Hiking through the forest, after a while it started to feel familiar, reminding me of my 2021 trip to Tassie and doing several day hikes around Lake St Clair. That was a nice feeling, along with the pleasant weather and variety of wildflowers, including Grass Triggerplants, Spreading Guinea flower, and my first Banksia flower of the entire trip. There are plenty of mature trees along this spot, and it continues a weeklong experience of walking through true wilderness. For the whole section leading to Narcissus Hut, you are walking parallel to the Narcissus River, although you'd never know it unless you looked at the map.