Well the clouds didn't stay away. Not a jot. I slept ok but my ten degree sleeping bag didn't do much to keep my feet warm. We packed our tents in a semi dry morning and had a big breakfast, then got to Cradle Mountain National Park to start walking at 10am. The weather wasn't great but the rain stayed light as we ascended the ridges around Dove Lake. The climbs were tough in places and the views over the lake were good, but the cloud continued to veil Cradle Mountain to varying degrees all day. Even though conditions got worse as we ate our lunch, three of us - Brecht, Lorenzo and me - pushed on the summit while Martyn returned to stave off his cold. The wind and rain got stronger as we climbed and we had to deal with a scramble over huge rocks for half an hour before finally reaching our goal. There was no view at the top, which was expected, so we quickly got on with our descent which was slowed by a boys brigade group intent on getting in our way. We eventually left them behind and marched on below the clouds to finish at 4pm, knackered and soaked. At least I got to use my GoreTex jacket that had previously been using up a large amount of space in my pack...

We drove on to one, two, then three camping spots before we found one where we didn't have to pitch our tents on gravel. The third cost us a massive five dollars for four people to spend the night, so here we are in Strahan ("Strawn") which is apparently lovely. We'll find out at breakfast.