Waldheim to Kitchen Hut return Walk.

Friday 04 December 2015 - 10km - 6hrs

Before walking our 4 day Overland Track with Cradle Huts. Paul and I spent 3 nights staying at the cabins at Waldheim. We had sensational weather and took advantage of the long days to do some good walks.

On our first full day, we decided to walk out to Kitchen Hut, via Crater Lake and Marion's Lookout, returning along the Horse Track. In 2010, we did this walk in reverse, but missed seeing anything due low cloud and driving rain. This time, though we had strong winds, the sky was gloriously sunny.

We left Waldheim and went up Marion's Lookout via the track to Crater Falls and Crater Lake. After recent rain, and snow, the falls were pumping.

As we'd left fairly early we had the climb almost to ourselves. The wind was making its presence felt on the exposed ridges.

At Marion's Lookout we stopped to take in the stunning sights. For about 10 minutes, we were the only people there...amazing.

From Marion's Lookout we continued on across the Cradle Plateau, with superb views of Cradle. We noticed that since our last visit in early 2013, much track work had been done, with a lot more wooden boardwalk. We looked back to see the amazing sight that is Kathleen's Pool and both got quite excited at our first glimpse of Barn Bluff in the distance.

There had been snow falls earlier in the week, and there was still some snow about.

As we approached Kitchen Hut, I couldn't help but think about how much I LOVE walking in this area.

We stopped for a break beside Kitchen Hut and enjoyed chatting with folk who were passing. There was a constant stream of people, with many aiming for the top of Cradle, though some were rather ill-prepared. There'd been some work on Kitchen Hut since our last visit, it was looking rather fine, especially inside.

For our return walk, we took the Horse Track turn-off about 400m from Kitchen Hut. The Horse Track returns on the less-travelled side of Crater Lake.

This undulating track is mostly rough underfoot, with some (underwater) duck boarding and muddy areas. I enjoyed this, as it felt a little 'wilder' than the main track. We saw a couple of folk walking the track in joggers, and they had very wet feet. The wind had really gained in strength and at times we were really buffeted about. We were looking for a spot, out of the wind, to stop for lunch and finally found a place alongside a small creek.

Continuing on, we came to a small track junction signposted for Crater Peak. We scrambled up and were rewarded with mind-blowing views right across to Dove Lake. We could even see the track climbing up from Crater Lake to Marion's Lookout.

Once we left the Crater Peak area the track started to drop quite quickly and the way downhill was steep, with rather large steps. We passed the private Scout Hut and re-joined the track coming from Crater Lake, then we retraced out steps to Waldheim. It was out of the wind and quite hot in the valley. We stopped on the small bridge to admire a trout catching food as the creek flowed along.

This was an excellent walk on a beautiful day.