Cradle Mountain

After our first night in Tassie we woke to a CHILLY morning!  As we were not connected to power we weren't able to use the heater and we weren't quite prepared for how cool it was going to be at night. We warmed up with some breakfast then decided as it was a clear day and meant to be nice weather we would head to Cradle Mountain.

We drove through Sheffield, picked up a few groceries and also looked at the many murals around the town (from the car). We continued driving up the windy roads to get to Lake St Clair National Park to see Cradle Mountain.  After a brief stop to try photograph an echidna on the side of the road we came to the carpark of Cradle Mountain. Wow! Everyone else thought it was a great day to go for a walk too!  Then a staff member informed Mars that there are only 30 days of the year that have blue skies at Cradle Mountain - so when they do come - everyone makes the most of them! We were just fortunate to be there that day!

Rowan and his customary dance for the photo!

Mars sorted our tickets for the shuttle to take us to the Mountain.  It was about a 10 minute drive on a bus.  We decided to take the Dove Lake walk - approx. 6kms walk estimated to take 2-3 hours.  We had taken the pram for Axel assuming we might leave it somewhere if the path seemed non-pram friendly. However... for the first part it seemed ok.

So we walked around the beautiful lake, the clear cool lake water contrasting with the green of the bush and the beautiful blue skies.  Gods handiwork! 

We stopped at regular intervals to admire the view and to check out the many trickles of water that run into the lake.  It was also necessary to throw rocks into the lake to see if we could miss the bushes and have our rock hit the lake water. 

Around half way we started getting plenty of comments (from walkers coming from the other way) about the pram but we soldiered on - Chad did a great job of pushing it, Karli helped him carry it over steps or rocks. Teamwork! By this stage we had worked out that the path was DEFINITELY not pram friendly but it was too late to turn back to leave it somewhere.

So we walked bridges, steps and rocky paths.  Little legs were slower than the longer ones but with encouragement they did manage to catch up.  We stopped for some snacks and a photo with the Japanese tourists (who were admiring ALL the kids with their blonde hair!).  Then we headed to the last 1.5kms of the track.  At this point the stairs became more vertical and the pram was carried rather than pushed! Definitely had my workout!

We also walked through temperate rainforests with lots of different plant types!

As we got closer to the end of the walk Brenton was busting for the toilet so we pushed on ahead of the rest then met them at the end of the walk.

From there we took the shuttle back to the carpark - our trip back to our camp in Devonport was very quiet!

After dinner the kids played cricket on the oval with the Ritchies then headed to bed.