Tasmania - March 8 - Cradle Mountain

After a very chilly night, I had an early night because I really had to pee. I hate having to put on shoes and a winter coat to go to the bathroom. I then had breakfast in the warm cooking shed by a fire that I kept going. Sleeping beauty arose at 10am, but to his credit, it doesn't take him too long to get ready, and we were set for hiking by 11.
We took a shuttle bus from the info center into the park, part of the effort to reduce traffic in the protected area. The last stop on the shuttle bus route was Dove Lake, where we got off. Dove Lake is a beautiful glacial lake with Cradle Mountain on its South end.
It was a 2 hour walk around the lake through mainly boardwalk and well-laid track. Much of the trail was through beautiful temperate rainforest. The best part was that it was sunny! and warm! Which meant that we quickly lost layers. There were waterfalls on several sides of the lake that were in full force as a result of the recent rains. The vegetation smelled wonderful, the air was warm - it was an enjoyable walk. The only downside is that Cradle Mountain generally, and Dove Lake in particular seem to be popular tourist destinations, so it was busy. Not Disney World busy, but busier than the trails at Lake St Claire where we saw one other person in 5 hours.

We had lunch at a covered picnic table at the end of the walk, and then took the shuttle to Romney's Creek.
We took the walk to Crater falls and Crater Lake. The first section was flat on boardwalk (to protect the ecosystem) that crossed grassland. Our first sighting of the day was wonbats! They were so cute! They have a body like a cross between a gopher and a teddy bear, with a face between a koala and a cat. It makes them look kind of like ewoks. They are now my favorite animals. The wombats stared at us, but were completely inconcerned about our presence. The rest of the walk had interesting pompom-like bushes along the way, and then a LOT of stairs.














The waterfall was nothing spectacular, but the lake was amazing.



We took a short breather with grapes and headed back down. There were amazing views of mountains in the distance, and the colors were beautiful blues and greens.
All along the boardwalk were little salamander-like lizards with iridescent blue on their backs. They were awfully quick when we tried to take pictures.

After we took a shuttle back to the visitor's center so that I could stamp our national parks passport book and then took a shuttle back to camp. It was still warm enough for sandals, and a shower. We then had a supper of spaghetti in the cookhouse, and then strolled around the campground. There were wallabies everywhere - basically little kangaroos. They look kind of like overgrown rabbits with short ears. They will stand on a campsite for quite a while waiting to see if they can get any food. They aren't scared, but aren't rude.