We had been holding off going to one of Tasmania's Big Things till the end, though we had driven close a couple of times on our trip. Nice weather would really enhance a day at Cradle Mountain but with not much time left on the trip it was today or not at all.

We woke to the bluest skies imaginable and a complete absence of cloud! Perfect.

In the car park, it seemed that everyone else was taking advantage of the perfect day too - hundreds of cars filled the spaces. Only 50 cars are allowed to go to the top car parks and the rest have to go by shuttle bus. So we waited and waited in a long queue; nearly an hour and three full buses later we were deposited at Dove Lake with its marvellous view of the mountain.

The day stayed cloudless and warm and with dozens of others we walked the Dove Lake Circuit, a not too strenuous walk around the entire perimeter of the lake.

Given that many of the other walks around the mountain are very steep, we settled for a trip back to the ranger station and two of the shorter walks there, one around a rainforest walk to Pencil Pine Falls and another along a very pretty stream ending up at Cradle Mountain Lodge.

Since we would not be doing any of the more arduous walks, we decided not to spend another day here and drove into the forests again to spend the night at Leven Canyon Campgound, a campsite provided by forestry and once again superb with great facilities and even firewood provided all for free. We were the only ones there and again had the pleasure of visits from pademelons at dusk, though these were less used to humans and were very flighty. One however ventured very close when we were quiet and still and we could see a tiny joey poking its head out of the pouch.