I sit writing this a tad exhausted - as I am recovering from walking the tracks around Cradle Mountain. As the forecast was for another scorcher we were up early and caught the first shuttle bus of the day into the park which left a few minutes after 8am. We alighted at Ronnie's Creek and then walked on board walk across the button grass plain and marshy areas up past Crater Falls, onto Crater Lake then followed the path via Wombat Peak and Wombat pools - in the balmy to hot morning air the only sign of wombats was their poo littering the trail but it was clearly aptly named - we then continued on along the shores of Lake Lilla to Dove Lake, which lies in the shadow of cradle mountain - the top could clearly be seen - we understood from Dennis on the Milford Track that it's only clear for an average of 8 days a year - so we were lucky! The track around the Dove Lake is 6km which we did anti clockwise - against the flow as the guide leaflet suggests clockwise. I however didn't want to walk track twice and we wanted to return to our turnoff point later and head back to Ronny Creek on the lower Lake Lilla Track.... ever the rebel! After a quick lunch stop at Ronnie's Creek - apple, cheese and muesli bar - we headed off along yet more boardwalk which covered the whole 5.5 km to the interpretative centre on the edge of the park. It was getting hotter but there was some respite from cooling breezes and some shady glades of eucalypts. On this part of the walk I was finally able to get a photograph of Cable Mountain - I had forgotten my small lens and the big one needed to be a long distance away to get in both edges of the mountain and the cradle....patience won out in the end.
We were walking, photographing and taking water stops in the park for 5 hours returning just after 1pm to the interpretive centre. We caught the next shuttle bus back to the information centre and our prize for completing the approximately 18-21km faster than their suggested 7 hours was an iced coffee and a walnut & banana muffin in the visitor centre cafe. We both agreed that the tracks were top quality and it must have taken some effort to put in all the board walks - our hats are off to the Tasmanian Parks Service for creating such a top class environment for walkers - and not one mountain bike anywhere - banned no doubt! Hot and sticky and a little refreshed we drove back to the lodge - my first stop was the shower - Johns , not surprisingly was the washing machines to wash the walking gear and a few other odds and ends......everything will be clean for our next stop and he will feel happy - so who am I to interfere with his enjoyment!
Although we had booked for a 7pm dinner at the Highlander Restaurant, in the Lodge, we changed it to 6 pm as hunger was upon us! The Highlander is probably the best restaurant in Cradle Mountain with a reputation for making top quality gourmet food using local Tasmanian ingredients and it didn't disappoint. I had gruyere soufflé with a tomato fondue, asparagus and an organic salad while John had ribeye steak, mash, broccoli, mushroom and a jus - it was really delicious and we produced clean plates yet again. Dessert was equally as good, chocolate fondant with coffee crumbs and bosenbury icecream for me and vanilla and honey frozen yogurt with strawberries for John.
Replete we decided as it was still warm and bright we would drive into the park and watch the sun go down and see what animals we could spot - this time I remembered to take both lens so was able to get some landscape shots of Cradle Mountain from Dove Lake.
No animals at the lake but at Ronnie's Creek I was able to get a nice picture of a Tasmanian native hen - a large moorhen type of bird with blue and green colouring and a prominent red eye. We walked along the boardwalk spotting wombats in the button grass - they were seemingly unperturbed by us and I got good photographs of one who was really close grazing and drinking from a small pool below us. A flock of parrots flew overhead - it was difficult to identify them as the setting sun made them look black and yellow but on closer inspection of the photograph I am not sure they were. (confirmed as yellow tailed black cockatoos by the team on Pepper Lodge reception) Back at the car Currawong, who look like rooks were patrolling for food...as no hapless tourists were eating they had to revert to natural foraging.
We slowly wended our way back to the lodge - no wallabies out but a wombat crossed the road.
Today's photo is of a unique tree by Crater lake - it looks dead but clearly it has had a rejuvenation.