Wednesday, June 17, 2009

Day 4: Cradle Mt and the middle of no where

Dove Lake

We made our way through the winding countryside and into the forest heading towards Cradle Mountain. It is practically in the middle of no where. Well... in reality, it was in the middle of Tasmania. ;)

Ron REALLY wanted to climb to the top of Cradle Mt. BUT it is a 6-8 hour return hike and through crazy paths and over huge rocks. Not the easiest climb that's for sure. Thankfully for me, we didn't get to Cradle Mt. until midday and the last bus back to the parking lot was at 5pm. We ended up taking the trail starting from Dove Lake, around to Wombat Lake and down to the rain forest and waterfall and all the way to Ronny Creek. The total trip took about 3 hours and ended with a nice picnic of roast chicken and brie sandwiches and fruit. It was freezing so we didn't take long to eat! Plus, the birds were eying us down.



We were really lucky to finish up around 3.30pm and didn't gamble for the last bus. As it was, we waited a while in the cold as full bus after bus passed us by. Finally, a bus going the opposite direction stopped and took us aboard. We went down to the last stop before heading back and there were literally hundreds of people waiting in line. Good luck to the people who waited to take the last bus, I'm pretty sure they had to walk in the dark the 5 miles back to the parking lot.

After the hike, we grabbed our takeaway coffee and headed to Cradle Mt. Cozy Cabins where we were staying the night. We ended up having a little cozy cabin to ourselves with shared bathrooms and kitchen. It was literally in the middle of no where. Since it was a tiny cozy cabin, we played many many hands of gin.

Almost forgot, we saw a wombat!






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