Tassie Trip 2015

Day 15

Strachan - Cradle Mountain National Park

We woke to some patchy blue skies this morning and we thought that the cracking day we had yesterday would continue today. Nah not so lucky.

We decamped at 8.30 to head firstly North past the sand dunes we had so much fun in yesterday and then East and inland. There was no way we were heading back up that road we travelled into Strachan!

This exit was much less windy and hairpin turns and so we made much better time. We climbed into the mountains towards Cradle and as we did, both the temperature and the visibility dropped significantly.

By the time we turned off the highway towards Cradle Mountain, visibility was so poor we could only just see the cars in front of us. No chance of a view at the lookout - just foggy mist!

We drove into our campsite and decided to setup and have lunch. Having done so, we decided to head out to Dove Lake and to do the 6.8km walk around the lake in the shadow of the towering Cradle Mountain we'd seen in pictures.

When we got to the lake all we could see was foggy mist - nothing else ....nadda. b*****.

Oh well, we set off on our hike determined to make the most of it. There were some very pretty sites to see along the way as well. Lots of little streams running through the lake edge all feeding the lake and smaller temperate rainforest patches to step though. All the while though our hike, the clouds lifted every now and then to give us a glimpse of the towering mountains that surround the lake. By the end of our hike we could see most of what turned out to be the shoulders of the range- but no Cradle view though.

We learned later that on average Cradle will show itself 1 in every 10 days. Today isn't one of them though.

On return from our hike and give the alpine like conditions ( still 6ish degrees) we set ourselves up in the well payed out camp kitchen complete with 2 open fireplaces and all the powered facilities we'd need. Did I mention we are unpowered in alpine like conditions for the next 2 nights!!

We cooked dinner and met some new friends in the cosy kitchen. One, DJ is the Head Brewer at a new micro brewery at Mona Vale ( Modus Operendi) and so we had a great chat with both him and his girlfriend. He's originally from North Carolina. We'll catchup with him for one of his award winning IPA's when were back in Sydney Town.

Tomorrow Dan and I will attempt to climb Cradle Mountain- weather dependant. It's a 14km hike all up so we're looking at 6 hours walking. The last bit to the summit is a very steep rock climb - hands and feet stuff so should be very interesting. Fingers crossed the weather clears!!!!