us with Jordi
in front of Dove Lake
a beautiful boat shed. the water is so high! we saw a picture where the water doesn't even reach the shed. the snow on the mountain has been really melting that the Lakes are so much higher than usual
i spy a wallaby eating a leftover apple (we got so close we could have pet him but we didn't) had to poke him with a stick to get his attention
waterfall
on the trail
i see the top
i spy snow!
there are little waterfalls everywhere because the snow on the mountain is melting so fast... really sounds beautiful
playing with self timer
trying to figure out self timer
looking across Dove Lake to the peak
the green trail around the lake is the one we had just gone on. (i believe it was 6k)... it took us almost 3 hours
we did the Dove Lake Circuit.... will do the summit tomorrow and then another half day on our last day here
looking at the ranger center and the mountain from behind. those shuttles took us all the way down to the Lake
feeding the wildlife
we were the last door on the left and the door right in front of the stairs is the kitchen door.
the other bunk section.... bathrooms were to the right (can't see them in this photo)
Buildings: bunk house (right) bathrooms (middle) our bunk house and kitchen (left)
Today we woke up at the Batman Fawkner Inn around 7 am
and I got ready and snuck out with the bags to sit in Jordi’s rental car that
was parked out front. We were surprised at how easily he trusted us not to take
his car when we asked for the car keys for a few minutes while Anthony walked
me down to the car. I sat in the car and read the newspaper we picked up in
Melbourne for a bit and once both the boys came down to the car with their
luggage, we headed to the grocery store to get food for our time in the mountain.
We felt good about the fact that Jordi needed food too so we didn’t inconvenience
him. We shopped around for a bit and I got food for sandwiches, dinners, things
that could be made into many different meals and snacks for the hiking. Jordi
made a comment that we bought food for a week… I thought: “clearly you don’t know
what it’s like to make a substantial meal for two for 3 days.” Haha. He was
really nice though and we drove back to the hostel for the boys to check out
and then we drove off to Cradle Mountain. The drive took about 2 hours and we
passed through many rolling pastures that were loaded with heaps of sheep. At one
point we stopped in a little town for the ATM but we were quickly on our way.
We finally arrived in the mountain at our place. We talked with Jordi for a bit and then decided it’d be a good idea to go unpack and get ready to go for a bit of a hike since there was plenty of day light left. We unpacked and looked around and found the fridge in the kitchen to put all our refridgerable food. The kitchen and bathrooms are a community kitchen that is shared with all the surrounding rooms. And each bunk room has a double bed and a bunk bed, hardly any room for movement, no side table and a heater that only turns on after certain hours. Anthony had a good laugh because when we arrived there he said “I know this place….” And then when we got to our bunk area he said “I stayed here!!” He had came to see Cradle Mountain a few years back on a trip he took alone. It was funny but I knew what to expect from what he told me, it gets very cold at night so a late shower in the girls bathroom may be nice, until you have to walk back to your bunk room in the freezing cold. It was a lot like camping but having a closed kitchen with all the essentials and a room instead of a tent. But the place (Discovery National Parks) had many different options including little cabins for families with kitchens, living rooms and bedrooms, or even tenting sites. What was ideal about the place was that it was directly across from the Mountain Visitor Center.
We walked across the street and went to go figure out which walk we would be taking. We decided to try out the Dove Lake Circuit because it was a half-day walk and it didn’t involve much change in altitude. We bought our passes into the National Park for the time we were there and boarded the shuttle bus that would bring us down to the Lake’s parking lot. We set off on our hike and it was a beautiful site. The Lake was really high and clean because it was all water from the mountain that had melted from the snow. Because of this there were lots of little waterfalls and streams running down from the top of the mountain and it sounded really peaceful and beautiful. There were many places on the trail that we were able to get to the beach of the Lake. The “sand” here wasn’t sand but instead lots of little pebbles from the breakdown of the rocks from the mountain. We took some pictures by the Lake and kept walking. The trail lead through open areas where we were able to see the mountain to forest areas where the trees were covered in moss and covering the whole trail. Only toward the end did the trail start to incline.
We hiked up a little area and there on a little bridge over some bushes was a little wallaby. We saw it just as it hoped down into the bushes to let its butt stick up. We crept over to it and were able to pet it, but didn’t. We saw that it had found an apple that someone had carelessly thrown off the trail. It saw us and hid for a bit but then came out and didn’t care that we were only a foot, crouched down, watching it. Once we had arrived back (just in time) in the parking lot for the last shuttle bus of the night we hopped on and headed back to the Visitor Center. The walk took almost three hours and I believe it was about 6k.
We finally arrived in the mountain at our place. We talked with Jordi for a bit and then decided it’d be a good idea to go unpack and get ready to go for a bit of a hike since there was plenty of day light left. We unpacked and looked around and found the fridge in the kitchen to put all our refridgerable food. The kitchen and bathrooms are a community kitchen that is shared with all the surrounding rooms. And each bunk room has a double bed and a bunk bed, hardly any room for movement, no side table and a heater that only turns on after certain hours. Anthony had a good laugh because when we arrived there he said “I know this place….” And then when we got to our bunk area he said “I stayed here!!” He had came to see Cradle Mountain a few years back on a trip he took alone. It was funny but I knew what to expect from what he told me, it gets very cold at night so a late shower in the girls bathroom may be nice, until you have to walk back to your bunk room in the freezing cold. It was a lot like camping but having a closed kitchen with all the essentials and a room instead of a tent. But the place (Discovery National Parks) had many different options including little cabins for families with kitchens, living rooms and bedrooms, or even tenting sites. What was ideal about the place was that it was directly across from the Mountain Visitor Center.
We walked across the street and went to go figure out which walk we would be taking. We decided to try out the Dove Lake Circuit because it was a half-day walk and it didn’t involve much change in altitude. We bought our passes into the National Park for the time we were there and boarded the shuttle bus that would bring us down to the Lake’s parking lot. We set off on our hike and it was a beautiful site. The Lake was really high and clean because it was all water from the mountain that had melted from the snow. Because of this there were lots of little waterfalls and streams running down from the top of the mountain and it sounded really peaceful and beautiful. There were many places on the trail that we were able to get to the beach of the Lake. The “sand” here wasn’t sand but instead lots of little pebbles from the breakdown of the rocks from the mountain. We took some pictures by the Lake and kept walking. The trail lead through open areas where we were able to see the mountain to forest areas where the trees were covered in moss and covering the whole trail. Only toward the end did the trail start to incline.
We hiked up a little area and there on a little bridge over some bushes was a little wallaby. We saw it just as it hoped down into the bushes to let its butt stick up. We crept over to it and were able to pet it, but didn’t. We saw that it had found an apple that someone had carelessly thrown off the trail. It saw us and hid for a bit but then came out and didn’t care that we were only a foot, crouched down, watching it. Once we had arrived back (just in time) in the parking lot for the last shuttle bus of the night we hopped on and headed back to the Visitor Center. The walk took almost three hours and I believe it was about 6k.
We had the option of purchasing "a night with the animals." This was a very expensive trip to drive around and look for Tasmanian Devils and then go to a wildlife sanctuary and feed them and "maybe even pet one!" It would have been really cool to see a Tasmanian Devil while in Tassie, but along with the horribly expensive price (for an hour of looking at them at dusk), I didn't fully support the treatment idea of the endangered animals exposure to humans on a daily basis. When we got back to our room we were exhausted. We decided to
shower before it got dark and the new started dinner because we were starving. We
had bought pasta for both nights with olives and sauce. We met a man in the
kitchen who was down from Melbourne with his family to see the mountain for his
son’s 18th birthday. After we cleaned up from dinner we headed back
to the room to find that the heater had finally started working. We talked a
bit and watched a bit of Community on Anthony’s phone and passed out pretty early because we were
exhausted and knew we needed an early morning the next day to hike the summit.
No comments:
Post a Comment