Overland Track Transport

[supplejack]

Hi guys,

Looking for some transport recommendations/advice. We are going to walk the overland track over Christmas and are currently looking for some shuttle services.

We are coming over with our car from Melbourne on a night sailing of 20/12/12 arriving 6am Saturday. From here we will be starting the overland track on Sunday 22 December and would prefer to start as early as possible. Ideally what we are looking for is somewhere in Launceston or Devonport that we can leave the car securely and catch a shuttle to Cradle Valley and then a return shuttle from Lake St Clair.

As an alternative option we may leave the car at Lake St Clair if we can get a shuttle to Cradle Valley from there without too much of a detour. 1st option is our preferred as it would be good to get to cradle valley on the Saturday so we can start relatively early on the Sunday.

Any ideas?

[Nuts]

Tassie Link is about the cheapest, can be a bit fickle from Lake St Clair though. Lots of smaller operators:

Tiger Wilderness Bushwalker's Bus - (based in Devonport) Ph: 0428 308 813 or 0418 584 884
Wilderness Expeditions P/L - (based in Devonport) Ph: 0418144518
Outdoor Recreational Transport – (based in Launceston) Ph: (03) 6391 8249
McDermotts Coaches - (based in Launceston) Ph: (03) 6330 3717
Tasmanian Wilderness Experiences – (based in Hobart) Ph: (03) 6261 4971 or 1300 882 293
Cradle Mountain Connections – (based in Hobart) Ph: 0400 882 742
Tassie Link - (terminals in Launceston and Hobart) Ph: 1300 300 520

the airports have long term parking (as do some the smaller operators)

You may get lucky with other walkers wanting to travel at the same time, can make it more difficult with dates already booked.

[Lophophaps]

See existing shuttles on http://www.outdoortasmania.com.au/media ... eboard.pdf and http://www.tigerwilderness.com.au/bushowg/

[Mark F]

Last Jan we left our car in the car park at Cradle and then returned by shuttle from Lake St Clair. I expect it would be much easier and safer to leave your car at one end of the park outside the ranger station rather than in a major town or pay for parking.

We chose to leave the car at Cradle as we left a parcel of clean clothes at Derwent Bridge pub where we had booked a night's accommodation for the end of the walk. This meant we had plenty of time to walk down the Lake and were not having to rush to meet a shuttle. This could be more of an issue if you expected to get the ferry and it didn't run.

[greyim]

An excellent plan Mark. Also if visitors can combine accom front and end, look for those that do free pick up/ drop off.