Lake St Clair Day 1

Sunday, 13 February 2022

I've done this two day Lake St Clair adventure a couple of times before. Firstly in the 90s with Clare, then in about 2013 with Julie, and now this weekend. This trip doesn't get old that's for sure.

I've said this before, it's strange how people seem to think that the end of the Overland track is Narcissus Hut, and that the 17k walk along Lake St Clair back to Cynthia Bay is boring. That's crazy - neither of those things are true.

We caught the 12:30 ferry over the mirror-calm lake, and just 10 minutes later were offloading Jo at Echo Point, about 2/3 of the way along.

I'm not sure if Jo is waving or calling for help in this photo below. Either way we left her on the jetty and roared off to Narcissus - a further 10 or so minutes away. 

The start of the trip back features a km or so of open running through grassy glades with the mountains above - it's beautiful. 

After about a kilometre I let the boys go ahead while I slowed down. My jog-hike style is to walk the hills and tricky track bits, whereas they were planning just to run straight through - Jon in particular was planning to enjoy this more than the last two times he has run it - after already having run 65kms in the Overland Track run.

I had a lovely time. Riminiscing of previous journeys with friends, with the kids, and by myself.  

I took my time,  and after about 3 hours and 17k I made it back to the visitor centre where Jett and Jon and Jo  (all of whom had finished an hour ahead of me), had told me to meet them on the beach.   And there they were - this was almost the best view of the whole trip  - I could see my people, my chair, and a bag of chips all ready for me.

After relaxing on the beach and dipping into the so-warm-it-wasn't-refreshing water, we strolled back around to our tentsite and had a lovely dinner, while more of our friends joined us in preparation for the next day's adventure.