Simon Norton, Author at 4corners7seas

Hiking in Zion National Park

During our road trip around the USA we visited several of that country’s incredible national parks, namely Rocky Mountains National Park, the Grand Canyon, Zion National Park, Bryce Canyon, Redwood National Park, Yellowstone, and Badlands National Park. Some of them we just drove through, stopping off for some pictures here and there, but we camped out in a few of them and managed to fit in a couple of short but beautiful hikes.

Zion National Park is located in the southern part of the southwestern state of Utah, a state famed for its geological wonders including Bryce Canyon, Arches, Canyonlands, and Monument Valley, to name just the more famous of them. Zion National Park is basically composed of two connected canyons named Zion Canyon and Kolob Canyon; Zion Canyon is the more often visited of the two, and that was where we camped for a couple of nights en route from the Grand Canyon to Vegas. On the first day we arrived quite late from Bryce, and after setting up camp just had time to walk the Emerald Pools trail as the sun was going down – the evening light looked spectacular as it struck the pink streaks which run through the sandstone strata of the canyon’s walls. It’s a nice short trail you can do in an hour or two, taking you a little up and then along the canyon wall to a few small pools, the waterfalls that feed them, and some fantastic views. You can take the shuttle from the Zion Canyon Visitor Center and get off at the Emerald Pools trailhead. A lovely little hike.

On our second (and only full) day in the park, we went further up Zion Canyon to hike the Narrows. This is a very narrow slot canyon with sheer rock walls towering over you as you wade up the river – this is a river hike, meaning that you are mostly walking in the river itself, and you are ankle-deep to waist-deep (or possibly even swimming) depending on the water level. Doing this in summer, we were generally only knee-deep so it wasn’t too tough, but you have to be careful with your footing as the water isn’t clear – be careful not to drop your camera! The full hike is 16 miles long, taking one long day or two more relaxed days, and requires a permit. However it is possible to hike the first section of the canyon without a permit, which is what we did; you just take the shuttle to the last stop and then proceed on foot into the canyon. You can hike up the river for a few miles before heading back to the car park. It’s slow going wading through the water, so this actually makes for a good few hours’ worth of hiking. The scenery is spectacular, and apparently it gets better and better if you do the full hike as the canyon gets narrower and narrower and the walls higher and higher. It was a real shame we didn’t have time to do the whole thing, and we turned back with regret; should I ever return to that part of the US, I’ll make it a top priority to do the full Narrows hike. Make sure you’re sensibly clothed for walking in a river (footwear especially) and pay heed to the warnings on the park website about flash floods – do not attempt this hike during or following periods of rain.

Zion National Park (and Utah generally) is an amazing place – highly recommended whether hiking or not!

Have you been to Zion? How was it? Leave a comment below and I’ll get back to you.

World Nomads* travel insurance has been designed by travelers for travelers. If you leave home without travel insurance or your policy runs out, you can buy or extend while on the road.

(This can be an important point, as I once found out the hard way in Bangkok)

*We receive a fee when you get a quote from World Nomads using this link. We do not represent World Nomads. This is not a recommendation to buy travel insurance.

Volcan Concepcion Hike, Ometepe Island, Lake Nicaragua

Central America

View of Volcan Maderas from Volcan Concepcion — View of Ometepe Island and Lake Nicaragua from the concepcion volcano

I first heard about Nicaragua‘s Concepcion volcano while doing the Tongariro Crossing hike in New Zealand (after a ski season in Queenstown), about how this active volcano along with its smaller near-neighbour Volcan Maderas forms a beautiful figure-of-8 shaped island (Ometepe Island) in the middle of Lake Nicaragua. I learned this from two English guys I was doing the Tongariro hike with, who were also backpacking around the world but in the opposite direction; they’d said it was a tough climb, but they’d also said that the stunning location and incredible views made it a great climb, and so that was the Central American volcano we (my then-girlfriend and I) found ourselves climbing a few weeks later (following my quest for the Mysterious Cities of Gold)

The Concepcion volcano visible across the lake while waiting for the boat to Ometepe island — View of the Concepcion volcano across Lake Nicaragua as we waited to board the boat to Ometepe island

Getting across Lake Nicaragua in the first place – a lake, but the size of a small sea – was almost more gruelling than climbing the volcano. The boats leave from San Jorge on the lake’s southern shore, but we were too late for the larger car ferry and had to go on one of the small boats which didn’t look very lakeworthy, never mind seaworthy. The wind was right up that day and the lake’s surface was chopped up into small, rapid waves which tossed our little boat about such that it really did feel a bit like being in a washing machine. Our stomachs both held out for the shortish crossing, but the scene on board was a misery of vomiting and it was a great relief to reach the terra firma of Ometepe. Needless to say, when we left the island a few days later we made sure to catch the car ferry and thus were able to enjoy a nice relaxing crossing, enjoying the views of Volcan Concepcion and Volcan Maderas instead of the views of peoples’ lunches being spewed over the side. In short, take the ferry!

(a word of caution though; the large bags all get piled up in a luggage area, separate from the seating, and a bunch of island youths boarded the ferry and then as it departed practised their dives and backflips off the side and swam back to shore… it was great watching their acrobatics, but try to make sure your bag isn’t on top of the pile – mine was, and someone (one of the divers, I would imagine) went into a side pocket and took my first aid kit. No great loss, and I hope the contents came in useful for someone, but do double check you have all valuables with you and not in your big bag)

Rough crossing on Lake Nicaragua to Ometepe — Lake Nicaragua gets very choppy when it’s windy, making for a rough crossing

Once on Ometepe Island, we took a bus around to Altagracia on the far side of Volcan Concepcion. We were planning to work out the climbing route and whether or not we needed a guide once we arrived in town, but as it turned out we were greeted off the bus by a waiting guide offering his services for the following day, a wiry middle-aged local man who spoke very little English and who we took an immediate liking to. He explained that he already had one customer (from Australia) signed up for the morning, and asked if we would like to join them to make it a group of four. I don’t recall his price, but it was very reasonable – a good day’s earnings for him, and for us a bit less than we’d have paid to a tour agency (the benefits of cutting out the middle man!). He knew what he was doing, he know where we were going, and he had a calm and patient demeanour… as to whether he actually had the skills to bail us out if we got into trouble, I have no idea and we didn’t have to find out – but we did climb Volcan Concepcion while it was actually erupting! With volcanic gas spewing from the crater like that, it would definitely have been off-limits had it been located in Japan or New Zealand, but with the lax health and safety laws in Nicaragua we could climb it anyway. Our guide took us up the appropriate route to keep the wind behind us so that the gases were blowing away from us… I suppose we’d have had a problem if the wind had changed direction, but our man seemed perfectly confident and we decided to trust him. If things had gone wrong it would have been our fault for climbing an erupting volcano, but we chanced it and we got away with it. Perhaps not the smartest decision, especially considering the awful loss of life in the recent eruption of Japan’s Ontake, for example… health and safety laws exist for good reason. But with that said, it really was pretty amazing being up there on the crater’s edge – lying flat on the rim, behind us was the incredible view of Ometepe Island’s figure-8 surrounded by the deep blue of Lake Nicaragua, and before us we could peek over the lip into the rancid gaseous nothingness spewing out of the crater while holding firmly on to our hats – the wind was absolutely blasting over the rim and to stand up would probably have resulted in being blown clean off the top and into the crater with fatal results. An awesome memory, but one which we unfortunately didn’t get any pictures of as our camera battery had run out before the top and our Aussie companion never came through with the promised email of his pictures… no point in speculating as to why not, but this was before Facebook and wifi were ubiquitous and it’s funny to think about how much harder it was to share pictures not so long ago (the pic at the top of the page was the highest one we got)

The climb itself is really quite tough work, a proper slog up the steep sides of the volcano, but the view gets better and better as you ascend. We started, very early in the morning, by hitching a ride from town to the trailhead in the back of a passing truck, and then hiking up the first 1,000m or so through the jungle. That was hot, sweaty work, but after we emerged above the tree line it became one long scramble up the increasingly steep final 600m over loose volcanic scree, which meant two steps forward, one step back, the whole way up. At 1,600m it’s not a huge mountain, but it was harder work physically than, say, Mt Kinabalu which is 2,500m taller (though you don’t have to worry about altitude effects, as Volcan Concepcion isn’t high enough). We were up and down again in just about six hours or so, but my legs felt it for days afterwards – the next day was pretty much a write-off. As we were descending the final bit of the trail, which passes through farmers’ fields and banana plantations, our guide stopped and chopped us all a banana down (he assured us that he was friends with the plantation owner), and that was surely the most delicious banana I have ever eaten or ever will! That was followed with fish soup back at our guesthouse, which turned out to be a bowl of soup with the entire cooked fish laid across it – and this was like no fish I’ve ever seen, but more like some sort of prehistoric lake monster… I could’ve eaten a horse right then though, so lake dinosaur soup was a good call. The Concepcion volcano hike is a tough but rewarding day hike, though if you want something a bit more chilled then Volcan Maderas is apparently much easier; and if you don’t fancy hiking, you can rent bikes instead and explore the island, or just chill out by the lake. Whatever you do there, Ometepe Island is an awesome travel destination and worth including on any Central American itinerary.

Have you been to Lake Nicaragua or climbed the Concepcion volcano? How was it? Any questions about Volcan Concepcion or Ometepe island? Leave a comment below and I’ll get back to you.

See my Nicaragua overland travel page here

World Nomads* travel insurance has been designed by travelers for travelers. If you leave home without travel insurance or your policy runs out, you can buy or extend while on the road.

(This can be an important point, as I once found out the hard way in Bangkok)

*We receive a fee when you get a quote from World Nomads using this link. We do not represent World Nomads. This is not a recommendation to buy travel insurance.

Hiking the Grouse Grind

Canada & USA

The Grouse Mountain ropeway — Halfway up the Grouse Grind

Canada is an enormous and beautiful country with many world class hiking trails through breathtaking landscapes of jagged peaks and glacier lakes… but unfortunately I never did any of them. I went to Canada primarily to snowboard, and I did a whole bunch of that and it was in Vancouver that I got my instructor’s licence and worked at Cypress Mountain. It’s a great city to live in if you want to combine city living with an outdoors lifestyle – the Vancouver / Whistler area also has great climbing and mountain biking, both of which I also sampled (the mountain biking in Whistler has to be seen to be believed). As for hiking, though, I only ever got around to doing one single trail – the city’s most famous, the Grouse Grind (plus the Stanley Park Seawall, if that counts as hiking!)

Grouse Mountain is one of Vancouver’s three ski areas, and the easiest to visit if you don’t have a vehicle – the mountain is accessed by cable car, and city buses take you right to the lower cable car station. It’s also open year-round as a sightseeing destination, so even if you don’t want to hike up it’s worth a visit to take in the city views from the top (where you can find restaurants, bars, bears (real ones), shops, and various activities on offer for kids).

The Grouse Grind hiking trail — My fellow Grinders taking a breather. It’s basically like climbing a great big staircase through the forest

The Grouse Grind is a short, steep hiking course from the car park at the lower cable car station up to the main building at the top. The trail is only 3km, yet the vertical gain is 853m – it’s basically a giant staircase, and takes most people 90 minutes to two hours. Some take much longer, while others pride themselves on doing it in some amazingly fast times – the record is a (pretty bloody impressive) 25 minutes. Make sure you have plenty of water if it’s hot, and there isn’t much that needs explaining in terms of logistics – head to Grouse, walk up the steps, enjoy an ice cold beer at the top – and, in most cases, take the cable car down! If you’re taking the bus, it’s number 236 from Lonsdale Quay (the Seabus runs between Waterfront station in central Vancouver and Lonsdale Quay on the North Shore). Oh, and one more thing – the Grind is closed from December to May, so if you’re in Van in winter forget the hike and grab your snowboard!

Grouse Grind isn’t a mind blowing hiking course or anything, but if you’re staying in Van for a while it’s something you should probably do at least once; if you’re only in town for a short time, Grouse Mountain is a good place to get a bird’s eye view of the city and the Grind is a good way to get up there.

Other well known hiking options around Vancouver include Mount Gardner and Killarney Lake on Bowen Island, the Baden Powell trail, the Chief (in Squamish, halfway to Whistler on the Sea to Sky Highway), and the Seawall around Stanley Park. (Stanley Park is right next to downtown Vancouver, very easy to reach, with a couple of decent beaches, and the Seawall only takes a couple of hours to walk around – with great views – so it’s a nice way to spend an afternoon, preferably followed by a bowl of ramen on nearby Robson Street)

Have you done the Grouse Grind? What was your time? Any questions? Leave a comment below and I’ll get back to you.

World Nomads* travel insurance has been designed by travelers for travelers. If you leave home without travel insurance or your policy runs out, you can buy or extend while on the road.

(This can be an important point, as I once found out the hard way in Bangkok)

*We receive a fee when you get a quote from World Nomads using this link. We do not represent World Nomads. This is not a recommendation to buy travel insurance.

The Tongariro Crossing

Australia & NZ

Tongariro National Park is located just south of Lake Taupo in the centre of New Zealand‘s North Island, and is home to the Tongariro Northern Circuit, one of New Zealand’s Great Walks. The Northern Circuit is a 4-day circumnavigation of Mt Ngauruhoe, and one of those legs is individually famous as a one-day hike called the Tongariro Crossing, which crosses the saddle between Mt Tongariro and Mt Ngauruhoe (these two mountains, along with Mt Ruapehu, form the massif around which the national park is based).

Looking across Lake Taupo towards Tongariro and Ruapehu — Looking across Lake Taupo towards Tongariro

This was the hike I’d come to Taupo to do, following a ski season in Queenstown – I would have liked to do the full Northern Circuit, but as it was Spring there was still a lot of snow up there and doing the full circuit would have been a fairly serious undertaking which I wasn’t equipped for (and certainly didn’t fancy tackling by myself!). On the other hand it was easy enough to join a guided group hike for the Tongariro Crossing (arranged through one of the outdoor companies in Taupo), with crampons and ice axes provided and a guide with the appropriate know-how and gear to cut the ice steps which were necessary at one point.

Whilst it isn’t compulsory to have a guide to do this hike, in winter and spring I think the only way you can arrange transportation to and from the trailheads is by joining a guided group. In the summer months, there shouldn’t be any issue with arranging transportation from Taupo and then just doing the walk by yourself – just make sure that you have the map, the proper equipment, and know what you’re doing in an alpine environment. The Tongariro Crossing has proven fatal for a number of hikers over the years who underestimated the potential dangers of alpine conditions, so if you’re a backpacker who fancies trying a famous and beautiful hike but doesn’t have much mountain experience, it would be wise to go with a guide even in summer (the Tongariro Crossing official website has all the relevant safety information and advice)

As for the track itself, it’s 19.4 kilometres long and takes up to 9 hours depending on the conditions. We were hiking in snow at the higher elevations, with very strong winds at one point and delays while our guide cut new ice steps, so it did take the best part of a day. The usual direction is from Mangatepopo Valley to Ketatahi, and the first part of the hike is actually the toughest as it involves a steep scramble up to the south crater. The quads definitely got a workout, and as we sat resting at the top of the climb a couple of English lads explained to the group that they’d recently climbed a volcano in Nicaragua which was much harder, so this didn’t seem too bad in comparison! They also said that the volcano in question – Volcan Concepcion – is on a very beautiful island in Lake Nicaragua, and that it was well worth the effort… as I was on my way to Central America after NZ, I immediately put that volcano on my to do list – and, a few weeks later, climbed it. After the climb up to south crater, the second part of the hike sees you crossing an alpine plateau with the main crater and several beautiful lakes (which we couldn’t see as they were still frozen and covered with snow), before finally descending down a forested path on the other side. It’s said to be one of the best single-day hikes in the world, and to be honest it probably did live up to its billing. I don’t think I’ve done a better one, anyway. So if you’re heading to New Zealand’s North Island and keen for some hiking, put the Tongariro Crossing on your list.

Tongariro Crossing in summer — How it looks without snow (photo credit: zwennie, used under Creative Commons license)

Have you done the Tongariro Crossing, or the full Northern Circuit? How was it? Any questions? Leave a comment below and I’ll get back to you.

See my NZ overland travel page here

To search & book accommodation in Taupo click here. Airbnb also has plenty of options in Taupo, if you’ve never used it before you can get a 30 dollar discount if you sign up with this link (affiliate links)

World Nomads* travel insurance has been designed by travelers for travelers. If you leave home without travel insurance or your policy runs out, you can buy or extend while on the road.

(This can be an important point, as I once found out the hard way in Bangkok)

*We receive a fee when you get a quote from World Nomads using this link. We do not represent World Nomads. This is not a recommendation to buy travel insurance.

Abel Tasman Coast Track Hiking & Sea Kayaking

Australia & NZ

After spending the ski season in Queenstown, I needed to get up to Auckland for my onward flight to Fiji. One must of course fly to Fiji (unless you’re on a cruise ship or you happen to have a yacht), but I had no intention of flying from Queenstown to Auckland when there was an interesting overland route available! Having already travelled around New Zealand’s South Island a few years earlier when I visited Kaikoura (for whale watching), Aoraki (Mt Cook), Milford Sound, and Franz Josef Glacier, this time I headed straight up to the Abel Tasman national park at the South Island’s northern tip to do some hiking & sea kayaking before making my way over to North Island for the first time. Once on North Island, the plan was to travel from Wellington (New Zealand’s capital) to Auckland (New Zealand’s largest city) via the usual tourist spots of Lake Taupo (to do the Tongariro Crossing hike) and Rotorua (to go caving in the nearby Waitomo Caves).

Abel Tasman national park is located near Nelson, which is the northernmost city on South Island. Getting there by bus from Queenstown involved two legs, with an overnight stop at Fox Glacier. But that was fine by me, as South Island’s west coast road is one of those spectacular drives that you never forget – I’ve been fortunate enough to do it twice and I highly recommend it.

South Island’s stunning west coast road

View from the Queenstown - Wanaka road — View from the Queenstown – Wanaka road

The alpine scenery between Queenstown and Wanaka is followed by some nice lake views (of Lake Wanaka and its close neighbour Lake Hawea), and then you reach the coastal stretch which really is incredible.

The Southern Alps are right on top of the west coast, so as you drive north you have the ocean to your left and the mountains towering up immediately on your right, with the road spanning a series of rivers as they drop down from the Alps through spectacular valleys, canyons which quickly open and close their jaws to you as you drive past – have your camera at the ready and try to be faster with it than I was! (or better yet, skip the bus and get your own wheels for the drive)

(I used Atomic Shuttles for this trip up South Island, and the driver for the first leg was a typically jovial Kiwi who had a grand old day chatting away to his handful of passengers – and who, as it turned out, was married to a Japanese woman and had spent many ski seasons in Japan… the stories he told of waste-deep powder snow certainly helped plant the seeds for my eventual decision to go chasing powder in the Land of the Rising Sun)

In 2005 I’d visited Franz Josef Glacier and tried a spot of ice climbing, so this time at Fox Glacier I just stopped for the night and continued on the next day without visiting the glacier itself. I would’ve liked to see it, but I was budgeting for the upcoming trip to Fiji and Central America so had to give it a miss. The drive from there up to Nelson wasn’t nearly as spectacular, but still nice enough.

The Abel Tasman Coast Track

Upon arrival in Nelson, I arranged (through my hostel) a hiking & sea kayaking trip along the Abel Tasman Coast Track with a local adventure sports company – this entails an early morning pickup from your Nelson accommodation, a roughly 2-hour drive to the park, and then into the kayaks for half a day paddling your way north along the coast in turquoise waters past golden beaches with nary a soul on them.

Eventually our guide led us to pull into a beach where we had lunch, and then we hiked back the other way along the Abel Tasman Coast Track, which is famous as one of the designated Great Walks of New Zealand. The whole track is a 3-day trek (or longer), and though we only walked 3 hours’ worth it was stunningly beautiful.

The fine sand beaches and clear waters really do look like they’ve been imported directly from a tropical paradise brochure… not the kind of scenery for which New Zealand is known internationally, but every bit as gorgeous as the more famous lakes-and-mountains views.

Then it was on to Picton and the Interislander ferry across the Cook Strait to North Island, a couple of nights in Wellington, and then up to Lake Taupo to do the Tongariro Crossing

Have you been hiking or kayaking on the Abel Tasman Coast Track, or driven the South Island west coast road? How was it? Any questions? Leave a comment below and I’ll get back to you.

Search & book accommodation in Nelson here. Airbnb’s also a good option, if you’ve never used it before you can get a 30 dollar discount if you sign up with this link (affiliate links)

World Nomads* travel insurance has been designed by travelers for travelers. If you leave home without travel insurance or your policy runs out, you can buy or extend while on the road.

(This can be an important point, as I once found out the hard way in Bangkok). If you’re hitting the slopes, World Nomads also has winter sports cover.

*We receive a fee when you get a quote from World Nomads using this link. We do not represent World Nomads. This is not a recommendation to buy travel insurance.

The Overland Track, Tasmania

Australia & NZ

Overland Track overview

The Overland Track is a multi-day trek through Tasmania’s Cradle Mountain – Lake St. Clair National Park, which I walked with a couple of visiting hometown friends (my frequent travel companions Mike & Ross) towards the end of my time in Australia following a ski season in Thredbo. It’s a 65km trail which is usually done in five days, but we did double legs on the middle and latter days to make it a 3-day job (my companions were pressed for time, squeezing in as much as they could on a one-month round the world trip). Once you reach Lake St. Clair there’s a ferry to the visitor centre at the far end of the lake, or an optional extra day’s hiking around the lake. We took the ferry!

Wallaby outside our tent — Morning visitor

It’s a cracking walk, with each section taking you through completely different scenery – the terrain on the first day is mountainous as you round Cradle Mountain, and then the middle part is mostly crossing alpine grasslands (which I thought almost looked like Africa – not that I’ve been to Africa!), before a final section of forest trails. We also had the good fortune to see a tiger snake up close, and the even better fortune that it didn’t bite Mike as he almost stepped on it.

Where to sleep on the the Overland Track

There are a series of maintained huts along the route providing dormitory beds and with campgrounds outside. It’s first come, first served and you have to carry a tent in case the huts are full when you arrive. We didn’t even attempt to score beds and elected to camp both nights as a matter of preference. Doing the trail from north to south in the usual five days, you would overnight at Waterfall Valley Hut, Windermere Hut, New Pelion Hut, and Kia Ora Hut; then if doing the optional walk around the lake you would also spend a night at Narcissus Hut (where the ferry jetty is located).

On the first day we walked a single leg as we had to travel from Launceston in the morning and didn’t have time for any more, meaning we camped at Waterfall Valley Hut. Then on the second day we covered two legs to reach New Pelion Hut, and on the third day we walked two legs to Narcissus Hut and made it in time for the last ferry of the day – just as the heavens opened following three days of perfect hiking weather – and were gorging ourselves on Hobart seafood a couple of hours later! I was happy enough doing the long days that we did and covering the distance in three days, but of course it would be a good idea to take five days and go at a more relaxed pace, unless you fancy a tough walk. There are also a number of interesting-looking side trails, including to the summit of Cradle Mountain near the start and a number of peaks within reach of New Pelion Hut in the middle, so you could even turn it into a one-week affair. The Overland Track and its side-trails certainly justify taking however much time you’re able to take.

Jetty on Lake St Clair — Downpour as we waited for the ferry at the end of the hike

Transportation for the Overland Track

In terms of transportation and other practicalities, unless you’re doing it in winter it’s compulsory to do the Overland Track from north to south, meaning you must first travel to Launceston. From there you can take a bus to the park visitor centre (where you have to register and pay the entry fees), and then from there there’s a shuttle bus to the trailhead. There are no waste disposal facilities on the trail and you must carry out all that you carry in, so be a bit smarter than we were and don’t carry any canned food – empty sweet corn tins become a real chore to carry. Gas camping stoves are forbidden so you have to take a (liquid) fuel stove with you if you want to make hot food and drinks. We visited an outdoor shop in Launceston where we rented our tents and a stove (and whatever else we didn’t already have), and they also arranged our bus tickets and we made use of their baggage-forwarding service. This is definitely worth doing, as you can send ahead everything you don’t need for the trail and pick it up in Hobart after you’ve finished the trek, meaning you can continue straight on to Hobart from the end of the trail instead of having to backtrack to Launceston.

Black tiger snake — Tiger snake (not the one we encountered. Photo credit: see below)

Safety… and Tiger Snakes!

We were lucky with the weather and it only rained just as we were waiting for the ferry, but you definitely need to be prepared for all kinds of weather. The Tasmania Parks & Wildlife Service’s Overland Track page has all the information in greater (and more up-to-date) detail than I’m giving here, so do take the time to read it and heed the safety warnings – and make sure you’re up to date on snake bite first aid! I remember them giving us an A4 sheet at the start of the trek describing the three types of snake found in Tasmania – the white-lipped snake (not so venomous), the lowland copperhead (dangerously venomous), and the tiger snake (extremely venomous!) – and what to do in the event of a snake bite. I recall reading that sheet and thinking that we almost certainly wouldn’t see a snake anyway. But on the third day of the hike, I was walking immediately behind Mike along a narrow trail as we were carrying on a conversation, with Ross a short distance behind us… and as Mike rounded a bend in the path, he froze in place with one foot up in the air, a huge black snake coiled up right there on the path in front of him. I didn’t see it straight away and bumped into Mike’s back, knocking him forward just as the snake bolted off into the bush, his foot coming down right in the spot where it had just been snoozing! Of course, the vast majority of snakes are never intentionally aggressive and only strike when surprised or left with no other choice… but if Mike had been a little less alert, or the snake had been a little slower to bolt, it would’ve been surprised all right, as he’d have trodden on it! So there’s probably a pretty high likelihood that he’d have been bitten. Given the distance from there to the nearest hut (I think it was a good 3-hour walk, so probably a good hour’s run) he’d have been in serious trouble in that event – and the huts don’t have medical facilities and anti-venom anyway, so there’d have been further delay while waiting for evacuation (by helicopter?)… in short, it would definitely have been a touch-and-go emergency situation. Thankfully that didn’t happen, and instead we just gawped at this enormous black snake as it thumped away through the undergrowth – moving at speed, its body was only making contact at the points where it was sidewinding off the ground, with most of the snake actually just in the air as it moved side to side – with each twist as it pushed against the earth, it made an audible thudding sound. The thing was huge! According to the Tasmania Parks & Wildlife Service snake page they measure from 1m to 1.8m when fully grown, and this one was at the upper end of that range. It was also really solidly built, and by far the largest wild snake I’ve ever seen. But it was really a beautiful creature, a shiny jet black from tip to tail, and I’m glad we encountered it without anyone (man or snake) getting hurt.

Have you done the Overland Track? How was it? Any questions? Leave a comment below and I’ll get back to you.

If Tasmania isn’t on your itinerary you could hike up Australia’s highest peak near Thredbo in the Snowy Mountains, Mt Kosciusko. See my Australia overland travel page here, and more Australia posts here.

Search and book accommodation in Launceston (we stayed at Launceston Backpackers, which was decent – spacious, with a garden and a beatup old upright piano in the common room you can tinkle) & Hobart (we stayed at Hobart Central YHA, which was exactly what you’d expect – cheap, no frills, clean, central location, did the job). Airbnb’s also a good option, if you’ve never used it before you can get a 30 dollar discount if you sign up with this link (affiliate links)

World Nomads* travel insurance has been designed by travelers for travelers. If you leave home without travel insurance or your policy runs out, you can buy or extend while on the road.

(This can be an important point, as I once found out the hard way in Bangkok)

*We receive a fee when you get a quote from World Nomads using this link. We do not represent World Nomads. This is not a recommendation to buy travel insurance.

(Snake photo credit: David Becker, Flickr. Used under Creative Commons license)