Walking around Dove Lake
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The weather was not fine.
It looked okay as we set out from the lodge, but by the time we drove to Cradle Mountain-Lake St Clair National Park it was raining steadily, but not heavily. We checked out the visitor centre - after waiting for it to open at 8am - lazy Tasmanians don't get up early! Then we drove up to the Dove Lake walking track.
Walking around Dove Lake |
The weather was not good enough to try anything tougher than the Dove Lake walk. A woman working at our lodge told us to do the walk anticlockwise, so we ignored the signs pointing everyone clockwise and did it backwards. This was a good idea because the west side of the lake (the bit we did first) had some big hills to climb over, while the east side was pretty flat.
 Walking around Dove Lake |
The best scenery was also on the west side - particularly the Ballroom Forest - a really wet area where moss grew all over everything. The rain was on and off as we walked for just under three hours - taking our time. Good thing we packed serious wet weather gear. As we finished the walk, the clouds parted just enough for a quick glimpse of Cradle Mountain itself.
 Cradle Mountain obscured by mist |
We drove back to the visitor centre and had a hot lunch at the Cradle Mountain Lodge bar, then did the Enchanted Walk - an easy 20 minute walk which showed more mossy trees and a wallaby and a bettong and a potoroo.
 Potoroo on the Enchanted Walk |
Then we did the Pencil Pine Falls walk to see the waterfall. All the walks were excellent. We came back to our lodge and had some hot tea to warm up again. Then we went on the Big Tree walk just near the lodge - which showed some huge mountain ash trees - but only baby ones - the biggest ones were all cut down 60 years ago.
We came back and had a shower before dinner.
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