Cradle Mountain

Anxious to make the most of the beautiful weather, we quickly set up camp, climbed into our tramping boots, and headed off to the Visitors Centre.  After viewing all the various tramps, we decided to do the Round Lake Dove Track.  A 6km track that circumnavigates the beautiful LAKE DOVE at the end of the CRADLE MOUNTAIN road.

Because there is very limited parking at the end of the road, the Visitors Centre provides a shuttle bus service to take trampers and tourists the last 6km up to Lake Dove.  This is an excellent service with buses running either up or down every 10 minutes. Just to give you an idea of how popular this place is, the car park at the visitors centre has spaces for about 200 to 300 cars, plus a huge bus parking area, and it was virtually full with not only cars, but also heaps of campervans and caravans.

LAKE DOVE lies at the very foot of CRADLE MOUNTAIN and when you get to the head of the Lake you are looking straight up at the mountain.  We spent a very enjoyable 2hr walk around the lake with beautiful views over the lake itself, and of course of Cradle Mountain. Due to the amount of trampers using the walk, a lot of it is a board walk, which makes walking very easy.

Back at our tent, the temperature was starting to drop and it looked like we were going to be in for a cold night.  We decided to cook tea in the camp kitchen where it was nice and warm, and after tea, spent an enjoyable evening in front of one of the roaring fires, playing cards.

We had several Pademelons hopping around in the scrub beside our tent, and a couple were even brave enough to come right up to us looking for handouts.  Pademelons are a species of wallaby very similar to the ones who had visited us at Freycinet National Park. 

At about midnight we were woken up by a possum inside our tent vestibule, trying his best to get into our bread bin.  Even a clout over the ear didn’t deter him, and finally I had to whack him with our chopping board before he decided to bugger off.  We had just about drifted off to sleep when we heard him back trying again.  There was only one thing to do, get up and put all our stuff in the car.

Monday morning was a bit overcast, and after a morning’s school work in the camp kitchen, we caught the shuttle bus back up the road.  This time we got off about three quarters of the way up, and did another walk following a river back towards the visitor centre.  This walk was another one of about 6 km, and this one was a boardwalk all the way.  We had been told to expect to see Wombats on the way, and if we were lucky, maybe Echidnas and possibly even a Tasmanian Devil.  Unfortunately we didn’t see a thing, but enjoyed our walk anyway.

After tea we took the torches and went spotlighting for wildlife around the camp ground and visitors centre.  This time we were luckier.  At the end of the visitor centre carpark we came across several Pademelons, and a Wombat quietly feeding on the grass.  We were able to get up to about 3 meters from the Wombat before he became a bit concerned and shambled off into the scrub.  Back in the camp ground we came across a possum sitting on a stump.  Again we were able to get right up close before he quietly moved off.  So different from New Zealand Wildlife which takes off as soon as it sees you.

Tuesday morning we woke up to a very heavy overcast sky and packed up straight away to beat the rain which looked like it would start any minute.  We were heading off to BURNIE and then hopefully a look around the North West Coastal area.