Editor’s note: This is a guest post by Kylie Garratt about her project to run the Overland Track with all the side trips. I watched the journey unfold on Strava over multiple years and feel inspired to replicate it myself. I hope you enjoy this guest post about a truly epic Tassie mission.

The Overland Track – A Special Place

Nearly 30 years ago I first walked and fell in love with the Overland Track. It was also when I was first introduced to the concept that people ran the track. My toes tingled, my senses lit up, I was awe-struck. There was a deep knowing then that this place, and running, would somehow feature in a significant way in my life at some time.

That it has on many occasions. It is an environment that I feel a deep sense of connection to, one that motivates me and one that strikes a chord with my soul.

Hatching the Idea

My husband, Clint, and I first came up with the idea of running the Overland with All Side Trips last year as part of my 50 Mountain Marathons in 50 Weeks Project. Significant thought and research went into defining what the classic side trips were. We decided on TasParks’ Overland Track Walk Notes list as this was in line with most other descriptions and kept to well-formed tracks to reduce human impact should other people want to replicate the run.

2024 Winter Mission

Clint and I embarked on a side trips adventure last year as a 3-day fastpack in mid-winter following a fresh dump of snow, during a crazy high-pressure system and with the whole area frozen over. Clint successfully completed the mission. Even though I had to bail on Ossa with frozen feet, it was the most glorious, thrilling and memorable run of the year (you can read about our Winter Mission on Clinton’s blog).

So there was unfinished business for me.

I vowed I would buy an Overland ticket in summer and have a crack.

Summer Overland Ticket

Bought a ticket. Then a bushfire torched a section of the track and I nobly accepted the mission wouldn’t happen. Then the track opened unexpectedly the day before my departure date and I was able to complete the challenge over a 3-day period in balmy, 20°, blue skies, almost no wind conditions. Wow! Glorious, thrilling and memorable in such contrasting ways to the winter run (see Strava 25-27 Feb 2025).

The only problem was that the lack of snow and ice meant it was so comfortable zipping up and down the mountains and so relaxed with each day finishing in the early afternoon, there was a deep fixation that surely this mission could be completed in one push…

The idea held such an intense interest, that with Clint’s encouragement, another Overland ticket was bought only hours after completing the 3-day mission for departure two weeks later.

One Push Mission – The Start

If I had to imagine the most amazing, perfect first day for a mission it wouldn’t come close to the rewarding, exciting, joy-filled day that eventuated.

Having said that, I did have a rather suboptimal start. I was aware the Crater Lake section of Overland track from Horse track junction to Wombat Pool junction was closed for repairs and I needed to take the detour via Lake Lilla and stomach the extra 1km. All good. As is often the case leading up to big missions, the head was busy with pre-planning and nervous excitement – Lake Lilla detour featured in my head then.

However, as soon as I started running at 4:09am, all those busy thoughts fell away and were replaced with a calm and a quiet and a reverent awe. It was wonderful. So much so that I went on autopilot and didn’t take the Lilla detour at the Ronny Creek bridge and only remembered when I hit the track closure at Horse Junction. Nooooooo! Less than 5 minutes into the run I had taken a wrong turn!! I had to back-track to the bridge – making the detour now closer to 2.5km. Oh dear.

Daylight Challenge

Part of the interest in attempting this mission in one push was that calculations suggested, even with my plodding pace, it might be possible to complete the mountain summits (Cradle, Barn, Oakleigh, Ossa and Pelion East) in daylight if the run took place on one of our longest summer days. The idea then being you could just run the more low-level section mostly in the dark (that simple – ha!).

Departing on 18 March meant I had 2.5hrs less daylight than this ideal, however I was motivated to work on summiting Ossa and being on my way down by the time it was dark.

I was somewhat relieved that the extra early start of waking at 3am had now accommodated the Lilla detour mistake but it was now also being eaten into by the moderate southerly headwind I was running into on the plateau in the wet cloud.

By the time I started ascending Cradle slower than usual because of the wet rocks, my prediction was for a 9pm Ossa summit with all going perfectly. With sunset at 7:30pm, the goal of daylight on Ossa was abandoned.

The Bestest Ever Mountain Day

My oh my the mountains turned it on!

After pushing into windy wet clouds, I couldn’t believe it when only minutes away from Cradle Summit, the clouds and wind started to drop away. As if you could top this, at the summit I found myself above clouds lit up by the reflection of a huge, brilliant moon with Barn Bluff and distant mountains poking their heads above. The east was painted with the first colours of sunrise. Oh my goodness!

With euphoria now in my strides, I danced down Cradle, back into the cloud and made my way to Barn Bluff. As forecasted, the strength in the wind dropped off and the cloud kept temperatures ideal for running at around 14° with a little drizzle and shielded from the sun.

Visiting the mountains felt as comfortable and as wonderful as a day out visiting old friends. Barney (Barn Bluff) was also above the clouds and bathed in sunshine.

Once on the super familiar Overland Track down to Waterfall Valley, out to Lake Will and back, through the burnt area and Forth Valley Lookout, the ideal conditions and familiarity of the track set me up for a bit of relatively effortless floating. So much so that by the time I reached the clagged-in-cloud Oakleigh summit, I was an hour and a half ahead of schedule and feeling fantastic! Maybe I would see some daylight on Ossa…

Not only did I see daylight, I hit sunset on Ossa! And it was glorious. Still a lower level of cloud, now red and pink from the ending colours of the day. The descent was all in daylight. I was two hours ahead of my times from the two weeks before. Never would I have imagined this.

Starting the Ossa climb

Ossa sun setting

Pelion East was my last mountain ascent and I summited with nautical twilight. There was almost no wind. Ossa was silhouetted against the last colours of sunset and the stars were brilliant in the clear night sky.

As I descended cautiously, I suddenly saw a bright light and thought it might be an early hallucination (I was a bit concerned if I was already hallucinating at 8:40pm!). But no, it was the moon rising as a big orange ball. You’ve got to be kidding me! It rose to its full glory during the descent back to Pelion Gap. Magical, mystical and a reminder there is something far greater at play than ourselves here.

As I said, you couldn’t imagine or plan a more perfect mountain day.

Running Through the Night

With the mountain ascents finished by 9pm, it was time to start the experiment of running through the night – something I had never done before. I’d always said I would only be interested in doing this if there was enormous purpose and desire or someone’s life depended on it. This mission ticked all the boxes for purpose and desire.

By the time I was on my way to Kia Ora, I had been awake for over 17hrs. In driver training they say being awake for this long is equivalent to functioning with a blood alcohol level of .05. This was a turning point for me and turns out I’m not great at functioning in this state. My work colleagues suggested I take up drinking as part of my training plan.

I lost interest in eating and reverted to putting half a blok lolly in my cheek for some glucose to dribble into my system. This worked surprisingly not too badly. I fumbled and slowed down. A lot.

The internal dialogue was fascinating to observe:

Before the run:

“I think I will be quite strong in my head during the night. I’ll just do what my minimal research on night running said to do and tell myself, ‘Look at you running through the night – you’re a badass!’”

Only a couple hours into the night:

“Oh, this is busted!… You’re a badass! But you’re not! The real badassess are mums and dads enduring sleepless nights, night after night even. I don’t know how they do it?! This is really busted! It’s not even midnight. Right, that’s it, the sleeping bag is coming out! I’m going straight to catch the 9:30 ferry from Narcissus when I wake. No way am I going to Pine Valley! No way am I going to run down the lake! Busted!”

By the time I had been down to Fergusson and D’Alton Falls, it was decided – I was stopping. For good.

I faffed in the forest to find a place with a log to elevate my legs. Even with my dark thoughts, I couldn’t help but peer out from my warm sleeping bag, seeing the moon through the tree tops and finding it pretty special.

Not much sleep happened and there was a lot of shifting positions to accommodate aches. But there was 3hrs of rest and then I was ready to get up and see how stiff my legs felt.

Well, they felt like a new person’s fresh legs! The thoughts belonged to a new person too:

“I love Pine Valley. Of course I’m going there. The lake and I have history. Of course I’m going there! Gee, it’s fantastic to be out here!”

Falls to Finish

It’s a bit of a blur as to how the last 10hrs from Hartnett Falls to the finish played out. Although I felt fresh for a couple of hours, there were signs of real tiredness. I went round in circles at Hartnett, not able to pick the trail back to the main track. I faffed so much with my vest pack that I had to stop to do it up or get food out and eat. Jacket on, jacket off, gloves on, off, on.

I was still able to enjoy the beauty of the Pine Valley rainforest even though I didn’t stop to cheerily chat with the small crowd at the hut.

I’ve felt worse on other occasions going down the lake so I knew the funny-looking robotic shuffle would somehow get me there.

Clint happened to be working as the Lake St Clair ferry driver at the time and it was wonderful to see him at the Cynthia Bay finish rather than the jetty at Narcissus as I was set on in the middle of the night.

Kit

I was super happy with the ‘not planning on sleeping but just in case’ kit which included:

• 14 litre vest pack (Arc’teryx Norvan 14)
• Garmin inReach
• Sleeping bag -1° 350g (Zpacks)
• Cuben bivvy 120g (Borah Gear)
• Blue foam sit mat
• Bread bags (put these straight over muddy shoes and then into the sleeping bag when it was all too much to deal with removing shoes – trapped the warmth and worked a treat!)
• Flameless heater bag 50g (to warm me up if I got too cold stopping overnight)
• Thermals, overpants, raincoat, hooded puffy jacket
• Running food equivalent to what I would take for 3 big day trips – gels, bloks, plain salty corn chips, muesli bars, mountain bread (finished with a day of food)
• 2x Ledlenser NEO5R head torches each 100g (300 lumens, 3.5hrs run time, magnetic attachment charger so it was fiddly to tape cord to torch but worked)
• 20,000mA battery charger (way too much – only needed 2,000mA per head torch charge)
• Snake bandage, steri-strips, Fixomull tape, paracetamol, zip ties, blister patches, toilet kit

This 4.3kg kit was perfect for the forecasted benign autumn mountain conditions or surviving in wilder conditions if the weather changed and there was an emergency.

Conclusion

It was extravagant and excessive to buy multiple Overland tickets in one season and head out on a big mission after being on a big mission but I’d do it all again in a heartbeat.

Of course, this only happened because of the support of Clinton – my favourite co-adventurer, co-conspirator and logistician for this mission.

I’m so grateful for this experience. It had been unknowingly brewing for 30 years and was the adventure of a lifetime!