Nine Day Hiking Highlights West

Mount Field National Park is one of Tasmania’s oldest national parks, established in 1916 with Freycinet NP, and is one of its most popular. This is partly because of its proximity to Hobart (94 km) but also because of its wide variety of flora, dramatic glaciated landforms and ready accessibility to most areas of the park. This tour features examples of all of the park’s attractions including sub-alpine forests, stands of ancient pencil pines, the remarkable cushion plants, glacial moraines and block streams, alpine moorlands, exquisite small tarns and lakes, monolithic dolerite boulder fields, dramatic cliffs and peaks, and stunning views. It provides a wonderful introduction to Tasmania’s alpine regions and its flora and topography. The tour is also characterised by the park’s multiple “personalities” – it starts in a sub-alpine forest along moraine-dammed lakes, and finishes with an exhilarating high altitude ridge-top traverse of the Rodway Range among the ice-shattered monolithic dolerite boulders of the “Lions Den” before descending the botanic “riot” of the Urquart Track to our finish.

Tour grade: T2 - Narrower but distinct tracks in pristine natural environments. Facilities are minimal and you will encounter few other walkers. These moderate tours require a reasonable level of fitness. Frenchmans Cap (1446 metres), an outstanding white monolith in southwest Tasmania’s Wild Rivers National Park, dates back more than 700 million years, making it one of the most ancient landforms in Tasmania. With its sheer cliff face of 450 metres and panoramic 360 degree views of the World Heritage Area, it represents a challenging and spectacular walking experience. The vegetation is also of primeval origin: cathedral-like rainforest on sheltered slopes and broad swathes of button-grass. The Cap towers above the land of the Wild Rivers, of which the most famous is the Franklin, whose tannin-stained, sometimes turbulent waters flow through deep gorges flanking the Cap. In five days you will experience the diversity of the plains, majesty of the rainforest, the grandeur of the mountain plateaus, and the “terrible beauty” of the Franklin River.

The Walls of Jerusalem National Park is a relatively compact park located between the Cradle Mountain Lake St Clair National Park to the west, and the Central Plateau Conservation Area to the east. It comprises a high alpine plateau above the Mersey River gorge, and features stunning examples of the Central Plateau’s ancient past with countless exquisite tarns and lakes, remnant glacial moraines, and glacier-scoured mountains. Thick stands of ancient pencil pines survive, as do several species of bolster (or cushion) plants, along with sphagnum moss rafts on boggy outlet streams. It also features many of Tasmania’s unique marsupials along with dolerite cliffs (the Walls) and vestiges of past fur-trapping activity evidenced by several trappers’ huts.

A 15-day walking tour visiting many of Tasmania's wilderness national parks and reserves and featuring a variety of walking landscapes (alpine, sub-alpine or coastal), grades (challenging or moderate) and gradients (steep or level). Several destinations offer a variety of walks to suit a range of fitness levels and routes can be varied to suit. As a contrast, the tour also includes a lazy mid-tour cruise on Macquarie Harbour to vary the style and pace of the walking activities and concludes with an exciting seaplane flight from the Tasman Peninsula*. The tour is fully catered and accommodation is provided in twin-share facilities. *minimum numbers apply. Tour Itinerary includes visits to Hobart, Mt Field National Park, Mt Wedge/Mt Anne, Lake St Clair National Park, Franklin/Gordon Rivers National Park, Macquarie Harbour Cruise, Zeehan and Mt Murchison/Montezuma Falls, Cradle Valley National Park, Mt Roland, Bicheno, Freycinet National Park, Maria Island, Tasman National Park, then returning to Hobart.

The Freycinet Peninsula, on Tasmania's east coast, is the location of the exquisite and renowned Wineglass Bay and the photogenic red granite peaks of The Hazards. It enjoys a mild year-round climate: warm and dry in summer, cool and temperate in winter. It also boasts some of the east coast's most secluded and pristine beaches, with breathtaking coastal views from the ridge tops west across Great Oyster Bay or south to Schouten Island. This tour is never far from the coast, yet still offers a sense of isolation and adventure in a relaxing and non-challenging environment.

Experience one of the world's last untouched, pristine, wilderness areas with landscapes of breathtaking natural beauty, stunning geological formations, and home to endangered and rare plants and animals. On our single-day guided walks, we provide you with all you'll need (excluding personal items) - transfers from your Hobart accommodation, waterproof and warm clothing, lunch and snacks and a day pack. All our guides are mature, highly experienced and committed environmentalists, qualified in Outdoor Leadership, First Aid, Food Safety and Hygiene. They carry appropriate emergency communication equipment and a comprehensive medical kit. We offer a range of walks for those new to bushwalking or experienced walkers. Whatever your experience you will encounter scenic alpine or spectacular coastal scenery - untouched and unspoilt natural beauty and remote places only accessible by foot. Alpine Walking Tasmania include locations such as Mt Field National Park, Hartz National Park, Mt Wellington Range, Wellington Park Walks, Southwest National Park: Mt Anne; Mt Wedge, Styx Valley; Junee Cave, Growling Swallet, and Lake St Clair National Park. Coastal Walking Tasmania includes locations such as Tasman National Park, Bruny Island, Freycinet National Park, and Maria Island National Park. Other destinations include Bluff River Gorge, Maydena and the Southwest Wilderness.

Tour grade: T2 - Narrower but distinct tracks (may be muddy in some places) in pristine natural environments. Facilities are minimal and you will encounter few other walkers. These moderate tours require a reasonable level of fitness. The South Coast Track is one of Tasmania's most remote tracks, combining an extraordinary range of environments and conditions featuring bleak button grass plains, breathtaking ocean vistas, unspoilt temperate rainforest and an exposed alpine plateau. The walk encompasses the entire panorama of Tasmania's geological history from its oldest rocks in the west (600 million years old), coal seams and fluted dolerite cliffs in the east (160 metres) to sands and gravels from the last ice age. The sense of isolation is highlighted by the light aircraft flight from Cambridge Airport (Hobart) to the landing strip at Melaleuca. This short exhilarating flight provides spectacular views of the Eastern Arthur Range, including the remarkable Federation Peak.

These moderate tours require a reasonable level of fitness. You can find some of Tasmania's most dramatically beautiful coastal scenery on the east coast of the Tasman Peninsula, in the south-east of the state. The Tasman Coastal Trail, one of Tasmania's Great Walks, follows the spectacular 300 metre dolerite cliffs along the coastline from Tasman Arch to Fortescue Bay and out to Cape Pillar. A well defined track follows the coast and is fairly dry under foot. You will see an array of wildlife; seals, penguins, dolphins and whales at various times, with Australian fur seals using the rugged coastline for breeding and resting, and fairy penguins nesting along the foreshore. The Tasman Peninsula enjoys a mild year-round climate: warm and dry in summer, cool and temperate in winter. You will experience breathtaking coastal views from the cliff tops up and down the coast, beautiful little bays (Bivouac, Canoe and Fortescue), and small offshore islands (The Lanterns and towering Tasman Island). This tour is never far from the coast, yet still offers a sense of isolation and adventure in a relaxing and non-challenging environment.

An 11-day walking tour visiting many of Tasmania's Northern and Eastern wilderness national parks and reserves and featuring a variety of walking landscapes (alpine, sub-alpine or coastal) grades (challenging or moderate)and gradients (steep or level/undulating). Several destinations offer a variety of walks to suit a range of fitness levels and routes can be varied to suit. The tour commences with an unforgettable cruise on Macquarie Harbour to contrast and vary the style and pace of the subsequent walking activities and concludes with an exciting seaplane flight from the Tasman Peninsula*. The tour is fully catered and accommodation is provided in twin-share facilities. *minimum numbers apply. Tour Itinerary includes visits to Hobart, Franklin/Gordon Rivers National Park, Macquarie Harbour Cruise, Zeehan and Mt Murchison/Montezuma Falls, Cradle Valley National Park, Mt Roland, Bicheno, Freycinet National Park, Maria Island, Tasman National Park, before returning to Hobart.

Well defined and wide tracks on easy to moderate terrain, in slightly modified natural environments. You will require a modest level of fitness. The world renowned Overland Track is usually included in any list of the world’s great walks, and justifiably so. It showcases the highlights of Tasmania’s spectacular landforms and flora in a memorable 80km trek from Lake St Clair to Cradle Mountain. Discover glacial remnants of cirques, lakes and tarns; temperate rainforests of myrtle beech and sassafras, laurel and leatherwood; jagged mountain peaks of fluted dolerite columns (including Tasmania’s highest – Mt Ossa at 1617 metres); stark alpine moor lands and deep gorges and waterfalls. In the peak season, our tour starts at Dove Lake below the dramatic Cradle Mountain and finishes at Cynthia Bay on Lake St Clair, a glacial lake 220m deep, 14 kilometres long. At other times, we start at Lake St Clair and finish at Cradle Mountain, and spend a night in Pine Valley as an early side-trip on the way to Windy Ridge and a day base-camping at Waterfall Valley.