Cradle Mountain

I guess the experiences that draw people to Tasmania tend to be the UNESCO World Heritage Sites - the five convict sites of which Port Arthur would be the most visited, and the 1.5 million hectares of contiguous temperate wilderness of which Cradle Mountain would be the centrepiece. When we went to Mount Field we visited two of the parks that comprise this World Heritage site, and we stopped in at Lake St Clair, but now we’re at Cradle Mountain itself.

The morning was quite frosty when we started our walk around Dove Lake.

The lake was still, so it reflected everything. There weren’t many people there that early, and most were quietly making their way around the lake. Cradle Mountain dominated the view, but the other mountains ringing the lake were good too.

There were areas of rainforest, but I’ve already put a lot of rainforest photos in the blog from this trip. We saw some yellow tailed black cockatoos and a Tasmanian rosella.

We finished the circuit, so we went on to the Crater Lake circuit. First we passed Lake Lilla.

Then Wombat pool with cataracts coming out of it. By that time a very noisy foreign family was leapfrogging us, but they finally disappeared into the distance as we toiled up the slope.

Cradle Mountain was disappearing behind another mountain when we saw it all three lakes below us with Wombat Pool nearest and Dove Lake farthest away.

Over the saddle we skirted Crater Lake, and started to descend.

We went along beside Crater Creek and saw a series of waterfalls (Crater Falls) in the rainforest.

The path dipped in and out of the rainforest and the button grass. Finally it was button grass until we reached the shuttle bus stop.

We left the National Park, and visited Railton, which claims to be the Topiary Town. 

Its neighbor - Sheffield - is the mural town.

On the way to these towns we went through a very rugged region, and saw Mount Roland.