Day 18

Day 18
Saturday

September 24
Cradle Mountain
Km – heaps on foot.
Sunny, crisp and clear , minus 1 to 7 degrees

Feeling either very fit or very tired??? – On top of the world ... or at least on top of Tasmania.

Now imagine my ukulele is playing.

Blue skies, smiling at me,
Nothin but blue skies can I see.

We are so lucky. Snow overnight and bright blue skies. No choice – big walk weather. Haven’t seen any Tasmanians for a while. They are the jolly round ones with red cheeks and infectious laughs. Mainly Japanese, American, European and Mainlander tourists.

Shuttle bus up to Dove Lake and couldn’t resist taking another shot with blue sky.

Back down the Lake Lilla track, then onto Wombat Pool track.

Looking across the higher Lake Lilla to Dove Lake.

The track is icy and lots of snow around. Nearly went head over turkey a couple of times. My particularly handsome foot is modelling some of the track.

Water, water everywhere. Reflections on Wombat Pool

The climb up to Marion’s Lookout is steep, icy and long. The views are worth the effort. A good spot to eat some of our food and enjoy the alpine atmosphere. Perfect conditions for walking as it is still, clear, sunny and cold.

Crater Lake from the climb.

At this point most people were returning back down the same track but as it was only noon, and such beautiful weather, we decided to keep on and make for a return along the overland track and the horse trail which would take us on the other side of Crater Lake. A couple of women, Toni(Sydney) and Bronwyn(Melbourne) decided to tag along with us for the walk.

Looking to the west at 'Granite Tor'.

Kitchen Hut is at the base of the Cradle Summit Track.

We turned north along the ‘Horse Track’ to Crater Peak.

Yes, Crater Peak is steep.

The descent down ‘thousands’ of make shift rough stone stairs to Waldheim Huts where we found some young paddy melons having a snooze.

After resting our feet back in our cottage we treated ourselves to dinner at the Cradle Mountain lodge. Macquarie Salmon for Pat and scotch fillet for me.

In a way this feels like our last ‘event’ in our trip. From now on we are meandering north and making our way to Devonport for the trip across the Strait on Monday night. Such a perfect way to finish our Tassie trip.