Another day passed, another nice cosy hut, another cold morning…
The view of Du Cane ranges near Kia Ora hut.
One last and only group snap shot with Chun-Hui, the taiwanese girl before we left Kia Ora hut. From here onwards, we will not likely to meet again as she was going straight down to Narcissus hut to catch the ferry the next day, so she pushed for 19km instead of 10km to Bert nichols hut where as we will stay a night at Bert Nichols hut. Nonetheless, she only had to endure the 1st 10km, because the remaining 9km is gradually downhill and flat.
My back country pass!!! 
This is Du cane hut with its beautiful backdrop. It now served as emergency hut only.
Super nice hut and i just love the colour of the hut. The wood used here to build the hut must be different.
Well, was supposed to write something about the hut, but can’t remembered anything already, lol. But this hut was built by Paddy Harnetts with king billy pines around in 1910. And it still stands today thanks to the conservationist!!!
The walk through the forest was simply serene!!! Moss everywhere, sound of rushing water, tall trees…
One of my regret was failure to capture the beauty without a tripod with me and time to stop and shoot them.
Side track to view these some amazing waterfalls.
D’alton falls on the left (nothing really impressive, too much water) and Fergusson falls on the right (very big and pretty cascading!!!)
Another photo of Fergusson falls…
Another short side track to view this Harnett falls named after Paddy Harnett. ANother breathtaking cascading waterfall!!!!
View of Mersey river from Harnett falls on the upper left pic, one of the longer rivers on the overland track flowing from Lake Rowallan.
Didn’t take lots of photos this time as most of the time we were under shady light in the forest and nothing new anymore, having said that, it’s still very pretty everywhere, every corner you turned.
Passing through Du Cane gap to reach the now BIGGEST hut on the overland track, Bert Nichols hut (formerly known as windy ridge hut) that was rebuilt and make bigger to accommodate more people. As you can see from the upper right pic above, there’s no more woody feel!!! It’s really bit disappointing to see this kind of hut. THough really HUGE, but the cosy feeling you get inside those previous huts was lost.
There’s been a lot of issues while proposing and building this new hut, on the impact, how, materials…, still in the end it was approved.
The new hut replaced the old 1974 windy ridge hut. The name change honours the role of Bert Nichols, a trapper, ranger and pioneer guide on the Overland track. His passion for the area and tfor the track itself contributed greatly to its existence and popularity today. Tent platforms are nestled around the new hut in the nearby forest. (history from the Cradle mountain/lake.St.Clair map/brochure)
The interior of the new hut, hmm….just like a school canteen, sigh…they even built some creative stuff inside hanging down on the roof. Too modernize feel…don’t like it.
Luckily the view outside of the Du Cane range is still tells you that you are among nature!!! hehe. There’s huge elevated platform outside for one to sunbath and view these mountains for as long as you can stand sitting outside, haha.
The above 2 panoramic pics just showed how the weather changed on the overland track, haha.
It’s a short hike from Kia Ora hut to Bert Nichols hut, so we did have plenty of time here where we went for EXPLORATION, LOL!!! Click for enlarge views!!!
And here i learned that everywhere in the world even in this beautiful island of Tasmania, the trees in the forest could never escape their fate of being cut down by chain saws…, really sad, those huge pines, centuries old were cut down in many areas around Tasmania by a big multinational logging company that controls the island, the government despite NGO and locals protesting. What i’m seeing here on the overland track luckily are preserved and safe from logging. Here too i learned of the stories and news that were not known outside of Australia and probably not outside of Tasmania. Lots of NGO tried their best efforts to save those trees by doing heaps of stuff e.g, staying on the tree to prevent the big tree from being cutting down, in the end they failed too, got captured. And worse of all, no one can control the big multinational logging company that has been cutting trees and earning millions and billions all by one family!!!! Not even the government because the government need their money for campaigning…sigh
By this stage of the hike, even my partial gore-tex hiking boots/shoes have gone wet or soggy, lol. Sun derpived too, drying was hard. At night we just slept near heater, haha.
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