Cradle Mountain !!

May 15 Cradle Mountain hike around Dove Lake.
Those Tassies are smart to have shuttles running into this amazing World Heritage National Park. We started our day with a hike around Dove Lake, the weather was a bit cloudy and some of the trails were more like small streams. The views were spectacular of Dove Lake and the iconic Cradle Mountain.
This was the area Genna visited when she was in Australia with UC Davis in July of 2009. She spent a long weekend at Cradle Mountain, her photos and glowing report of the animals were part of the stimulation for our trip.

The forests here are so different from our own, full of gums trees, odd pines, beeches and lots of moss, lichen and fungus.

More wombats greeted us on the walkway as we headed to find Waldheim Cabin very rustic cottage built by the John Muir of Cradle Mountain, Gustav Weindorfer in the early 1900's. We could imagine the hobbits as we explored the mossy forest around Waldheim.

The interpretive center was curiously deserted but worthwhile once we found a very strange art exhibit of paintings of Tasmanian Devils in different famous styles and motifs.

As we were turning in the for the night two brush-tail possums were having a row just outside our camper. In fact as I was trying photograph them Bob was concerned that they would join us inside !!

May 16 Cradle Mountain day 2

This morning we were so lucky to have a clear day when we arrived at Dove Lake. The reflections of the mountains in the lake were exquisite, many photos were taken. To crown the beginning of our day, I spotted a platypus swimming around the lake. WooHoo !!  We decided to hike the lake circuit  the other direction, the trail was icy in spots but less like a stream today.

We lunched at Ronny Creek on amazing blue cheese and our last apple from Launceston, the currawongs were cheeky and lurked at a close distance.
Our afternoon walk was down the boardwalk trail  to the visitor/interpretive center.

 

The many changes in eco-systems were dramatic.

Once back to the park we availed ourselves of the large communal building to enjoy their large fireplace and use their tables and power outlet for camera and blogging.