Any suggestions on a Tassie bushwalking experience???

[sozzy]

Hi all, my partner and I are off to Tassie at the start of November. We would love to go bushwalking around Tassie, does anyone have any suggestions on where we must go or any other bushwalking advice for us. Both of us have done some bushwalking but we are by no means experienced. Any comments would be welcome

[icefest]

Hey,

There are a huge variation in difficulties available, it's usually help to know how much you are comfortable navigation and if you can get unlost with map/compass/gps.

http://tastracks.webs.com/ has a great index of walks but also includes some very hard and remote ones.

Some suggestions:
The cradle are is full of tourists but nice for daywalks.
I think Pine Valley is open at that time of the year - the acropolis and labyrinth would be a great 3-4 day walk.

Use this to get some idea about the area if there is a track you like: http://maps.thelist.tas.gov.au/listmap/app/list/map


-icefest

[Tortoise]

Welcome, Sozzy. From your other thread, it sounds like you might just be looking for 2 days at the most. Or are you looking at longer ones? What sort of walks have you done - distance, elevation gain, alpine etc? That'll help us with more specific ideas. E.g. Are you after mountains, beaches, waterfalls, hard walks or easy walks? What would be the hardest one you've done? Do you mind a bit of rock scrambling in airy places? Have you done any offtrack stuff, or tracks that need care to find and stay on? Do you use a GPS or map/compass? There are a lot of nice places where you wouldn't want to get stuck in poor visibly otherwise.

+1 for tastracks That's an excellent place to start, with lots of walks that aren't heavily populated. If you've been to Cradle before, a good day walk is Hounslows Heath/Maryland Track - i've yet to meet a person on the track. It's slow going up through the forest with tree roots, and exposed up the top, but if the weather is ok, it's lovely. Or Maryland/Riggs Pass/ Crater Peak circuit.

Pine Valley/labyrinth/acropolis is brilliant if you have the time/oomph. You would need to factor in the cost/timing of the boat, or add another day or two to get in and out.

[sozzy]

Tortoise just a little bit of info about us. My partner and I have just finished working on a cruise boat through the Kimberley our walks on the trip consisted of a few scrambles up hills over rocks etc to see cave art and water falls.

My partner has done the Inca trail (carrying his own pack)

We have both done these mountains in China (albeit 3 years ago)
Huashan (north peak 1116mtrs above sea level)
Huang Shan (Yellow Mountain) 1700mtrs above sea level two day Alpine walk/climb we did sleep in a cabin for this one lol (for me this was probably the hardest)

We both did Mt Warning (Northern NSW) the other day 1156 mtrs (8.8km return journey).

We have never used GPS or compass and maps for walking but would be keen to learn, we are open to all sorts of walks don't mind scrambling over rocks, tree trunks etc. I would love to see a different variety of walks but as we are still newbies im not too keen to go too far off track, I would be open to join in on walks with others that are more experienced (not sure if this is a common thing or not)

I hope I have given a little bit more insight to our capabilities. I cant wait to get down there and see this amazing part of OZ!

[north-north-west]

You would ideally want to stick to decent tracks or the most open and easy of off-track areas. Depending on how long you have and which parts of the island you want to cover, your best bet for starters would be the major 'big-name' tracks, with a few shorter and rougher bits thrown in.
Freycinet, Maria, South Coast Track, Tasman Peninsula, parts of the Overland and areas accessible from it (Pine Valley is a good recommendation), Ben Lomond, Mount Field, Hartz.
If you're bringing a car you can get the National Park maps on the ferry, alternatively visit someone like Paddy Pallin in Launceston or the Map Shop in Hobart to get some decent maps (and possibly guidebooks) of anywhere you might be going.

There are a LOT of tracked daywalks in Tassie, from tourist oriented doddles to much longer, rougher, harder and steeper stuff. If you're interested in getting an idea of the South West, Wedge, Sprent, Sentinels, Needles are a good start. On the west coast Mts Farrell and (especially) Murchison are excellent short daywalks. In good weather the Tyndalls are a good introduction to off-track walking as the main plateau is very open: there's a rough track up and once at Lake Tyndall (which is a good spot for a base camp) you just make it up as you go.
Mt Roland is a great walk, whether you do the shorter (steeper) climb from the east, or the longer route from O'Neills Rd, which can be turned into a circuit by continuing past Van Dyke. Ben Lomond is another area that has good access with some tracks and a lot of open country that is easy off-track walking.

With it all, wherever you are, be aware that Tasmanian weather can change dramatically and suddenly. Never be complacent about the conditions, no matter how good it looks.

[ofuros]

For something different, the downhill cycle from the top of Hobart's Mt Wellington is a doozy,
you hardly have to pedal all the way to the salty sea at Constitution Docks. About 20 km's away !
Just google Mt Wellington descent for operators....

[MrWalker]

On the other thread about this, (the one you said you were going to close down), you asked about the Tasmanian Trail.
It is a good way to see the bits of Tasmania that people live and work in (farms and forests), but does not cover the best scenery, so you would do better to stick to any of the Great Short Walks or other suggestions here.