Camping near trailhead?

[overlandnoob]

Hi
We had a bit of trouble aligning buses and the track date, so we need to camp one night at the beginning of the track before we walk in. Is there anywhere near the visitor centre we are able to camp for free for a night? The discovery holiday park at cradle mountain wants to charge $96 for an unpowered camping ground which seems exorbitant. Thank you

[Tortoise]

G'day overlandnoob, and welcome.

Yes, that seems excessive, especially from my fairly recent experience.

Sorry I don't know any freebies, or I would have used them often before now!

I had a check at:

https://www.discoveryholidayparks.com.a ... ommodation
(sorry i don't know how to do a proper link, and the 'accommodation' bit isn't previewing properly)

Looks like $36 for up to 8 people for an unpowered site now, which I imagine would be peak season.
So depending on how many of you there are, it could be pretty reasonable.

[South_Aussie_Hiker]

This is a real bug bear of mine.

By the time you actually get to Cradle, it's often too late to start the first day to waterfall valley. Definitely don't want to rush it, because it's one of the best days with two great side trips.

Unless you stay in Launceston for the night and get a private charter to the track really early ( leaving Launceston by about 7am) you can't get a full day walking and need to stay at cradle.

I believe Waldheim cabins can be an option for staying the night on a budget, but you need to sign in for your walk the day before after 4pm (unless you want to go all the way up to the visitor centre and then back to the trailhead again).

[overlandnoob]

G'day overlandnoob, and welcome.

Yes, that seems excessive, especially from my fairly recent experience.

Sorry I don't know any freebies, or I would have used them often before now!

I had a check at:

https://www.discoveryholidayparks.com.a ... ommodation
(sorry i don't know how to do a proper link, and the 'accommodation' bit isn't previewing properly)

Looks like $36 for up to 8 people for an unpowered site now, which I imagine would be peak season.
So depending on how many of you there are, it could be pretty reasonable.

That's the place we were looking at - if you set the number of people to 7 the price jumps up by $60. It is ridiculous - what's it to them if there are three tents instead of one if all they're supplying is level ground...

Buses are with tassielink and so not flexible, so if there's no free site I guess we'll have to pay the $96. Thanks guys

[wander]

$96.00 / 7 people = $13.71 each, which having stayed a few caravan parks throughout Tasmania over this Summer using only un-powered sites I can say is good value and on the cheapish side per person. So I think you are whinging at bit about the price.

[Strider]

Doesn't 7 people exceed the maximum party size requested by Parks, anyway?

[overlandnoob]

$96.00 / 7 people = $13.71 each, which having stayed a few caravan parks throughout Tasmania over this Summer using only un-powered sites I can say is good value and on the cheapish side per person. So I think you are whinging at bit about the price.

It's more the principle than anything else - we'll suck it up. 8 is the maximum according to the Parks site.

Thanks all

[wander]

I missed the principle you are grumpy about.

By way of comparison Lake Boga Caravan Park in Victoria charges $22.00 for up to. 2 people then $10.00 per person. Which is not far off the rate you have been offered.

If you have a group of 7 it maybe cheaper to just maxi taxi it from Lonie to get to the trailhead earlier in the day. Last time I wandered down the Overland (Jan 2000) we had a group of 4 & it was cheaper to taxi from Lonie than catch the bus which back then had a most strange timetable that does not appear to have become less strange with time.