Virtual The Overland Track Walk for Treadmills
The Overland Track crosses the heart of Cradle Mountain–Lake St Clair National Park, travelling through the Tasmanian Wilderness World Heritage Area from Ronny Creek to Narcissus. This 151-minute walking video takes in scenery from one of Australia's best-known long-distance walks, passing through landscapes associated with Cradle Mountain, Barn Bluff, Mount Pelion and Mount Ossa.
The scenery changes constantly along the route. Boardwalk sections give way to rocks, gravel, roots, mud and uneven ground, while the track moves between forest and open alpine country. Almost half of the route sits above 1,000 metres, where the trees thin out and buttongrass plains, alpine meadows and glacial valleys become more common. Lower down, the track passes through tall eucalypt forest and ancient rainforest, including areas of myrtle-beech.
Lakes and tarns appear throughout the walk, often opening up suddenly between the surrounding mountains. The landscape around Cradle Mountain is particularly rugged and exposed, while further south the route heads into denser forest and towards the Du Cane Range. The higher sections can also feel quite different depending on the weather, with conditions changing quickly in this alpine environment.
The full Overland Track is around 65 kilometres from Ronny Creek to Narcissus and is normally walked over six days. From Narcissus, the journey can be extended another 17.5 kilometres along Lake St Clair to Cynthia Bay, or you can take the ferry across the lake to the visitor centre.
For the treadmill version, the video uses a steady pace of around 4 km/h with a 3% incline. That gives the walk a manageable uphill rhythm without trying to recreate every climb and descent on the real track. Over more than two and a half hours, the moderate incline and consistent pace make this much more of an endurance walk than a short hill workout.
At 151 minutes, there's plenty of time to settle into the scenery and let the landscape gradually change around you. Forest, boardwalk, buttongrass plains, alpine lakes and rugged mountain peaks all feature along the route, giving this virtual walk a good sense of the variety found on the Overland Track.
Trail Information
Location: Cradle Mountain–Lake St Clair National Park, Tasmania, Australia
Trail: Overland Track
Walk Duration: 151 Minutes
Terrain: Alpine & Mountain Trail
Suggested Treadmill Incline: 3%
Walking Pace: Moderate