Yesterday we travelled from Lake St Clair to Cradle Mountain. Only did a couple of short walks enroute to our accommodation at Cradle Mountain. We stopped at Queenstown for lunch (on the West Coast) where the West Coast Wilderness Railway runs. In the afternoon, at Cradle Mountain, we went to Devils@Cradle to see their Tasmanian Devils and Quolls. The accommodation here is a bit rustic but comfortable.
Today we walked up to Marion's Lookout from Waldheim Chalet. It was cloudy,but not much rain, so views were restricted, then we walked around Dove Lake and views of Cradle Mountain finally unfolded at the end. That's the end of the Lake St Clair - Cradle Mountain National Park leg of the tour, now onto the East Coast.
Back online again. On Wednesday we drove from Maydena to our new accommodation at Lake St Clair, about 2 hours drive north west, where we stayed for two nights. On getting to Lake St Clair we were greeted with snow on the hills but even on our walk from Echo Point (we got there by ferry) and back to the lake we had some snow. The following day, no snow but wind and showers, so we weren't able to go higher than Shallow Lake which was more like the Atlantic Ocean than a lake. We did see some wildlife close and personal: leeches. Also saw some people that thought they were walking in a local park: wearing shorts and white sneakers. On getting back to the lakehead, I came across a Frenchman outside the National Park Visitor Centre who was complaining that the parks people were not able to tell him on which day the rain had started as it is not normal to have rain at this time of the year. I am not sure where he got his information from, but I told him it is not unusual to have rain in Summer in Tasmania. Later I saw him inflicting a photo shoot on an echidna, while snorting at it. Not sure whether he speaks echidna or what.
We had a slight problem in our group when two of them were unable to find their lodge in the dark. They had to go find the guides to show them the way. The accommodation at Lake St. Clair was excellent, I only had issue with the noisey fridge which started to make weird noises at 2am. Others in the group said they had the same problem!
Hello again. On day 2 of the tour we went to the Mount Dromedary Forest Reserve, near New Norfolk. Unfortunately due to road closures associated with the fires we couldn't do the planned walk in Mount Field National Park. Instead we went to this forest reserve. Unfortunately it was raining at the start of the walk and later we found that the track up to the tops was impassable. At least the rain stopped in the afternoon. One thing of mid concern were the two graves, marked with large crosses, located on a property near the start of the walk. Off to Lake St.Clair tomorrow.
