September 27th: Cradle Mountain Summit

our bunk room.

boat start point to get to the top of that mountain in the background!

already catching our breath from the steep climb

this was only going to get steeper

much steeper now...

so steep there were chains to hoist ourselves up

at a lookout point

snow man! (we intended to make one but failed to do so)

beautiful colours

Dove Lake with the summit

snow was melting into huge puddles

making his first snow angel

we made snow angels... mine has a halo and his has horns... they are hard to see

the snow wasn't really that dry.....

all the snow melting and forming streams

SNOW :)

kitchen hut

so close.... kinda

how is this tropical plant all the way up here?

the trail suddenly went 90 degrees

taking a breather

this is the highest point we made it to.

looking down at the trail

would have taken too long to get up there... and the trail looked frightening

look at the colours! beginning our decent on Face Trail

the side the sun hardly hits

finally a little bridge so we Don't have to step in puddles and streams

walking along side the top

Crater Lake (left) Dove Lake (right)

waterfall going into Crater Lake and then a waterfall going into Dove Lake

way up high! we have to get down there at some point

water falling off the rock

finally down here! let's check it out...

looking up from where we were

looking out of the shed

EW

another Lake on the other side of the shed higher up than Dove Lake

you can see the wind really started to pick up

and the clouds are rolling in...

you can see the little trail we were taking along the top

thank goodness we did not have to hike up this

by Dove Lake and close to the end

sitting on Crater Rock

we had walked through TOO many puddles and streams that day

We took the trail from the "you are here spot" toward the read upward trail and up to Marion's lookout (trail to there not on map) up to Overland Track (in purple up to kitchen hut) and up to the purple on the upper left toward the summit. Then back down from the summit trail down on Face Track and that lead to the Lake Roadway Track which links back up to the Dove Lake car park

wallaby siting!

getting closer......

he's hopping away!

hop hop wallaby

chasing the wallaby

the community kitchen for the bunk houses

wild possum come here!

checking us out

can we feed you??

eating our cookies

get him away from our bedroom door before he's in it!

this is the lookout that we took our first picture from. it's not marion's look out but it was still really pretty to look at the surroundings. And Anthony liked the fact he could try out throwing snow balls.....

on Face Track looking down and then up at the summit. you can here the water flowing from the top

almost done with the hike, the wind was picking up (you can here it!) and the storm clouds start rolling in

This morning the alarm went off way too early… but once we were finally up and dressed in many many layers we made breakfast which consisted of oatmeal-type cereal, banana and English muffin with cream cheese. I made the sandwiches (loaded with meat, cream cheese and olives) and packed lots of fruit and water in the bags. The weather forecast had predicted plenty of rain for the day so we were keeping our fingers crossed that it wouldn’t rain. We stopped over in the office that deals with transport back to Launceston and purchased our tickets back the following afternoon… much to our dismay of the price of those tickets.We set off and were at the Dove Lake car park at 10:30 am and set off! (It was still a bit later than we wanted to be off in the morning).

So we were off! We hiked on a bit of the Dove Lake Circuit trail and up toward the path that lead towards Marion’s Lookout. This trial lead to a very steep path that even had chains on the side that you could hoist yourself up with. We stopped plenty of times to catch our breath but didn’t see many people along the way at this point. As we got higher in elevation we started seeing more snow. One look-out point (where many people were admiring the views) Anthony and I threw some snow balls, saw a snowman and had a snack of dried fruit and nuts. The wind was picking up and we had to put our coats back on. we continued to hike and finally arrived at Marion’s Lookout which gave a good panoramic view of the surrounding lakes and the mountain peaks.

We continued to hike and came to a huge plateau where we were able to take good pictures of the peaks. Here, was where we came across the most snow we had seen. It was not dry snow so our feet got pretty wet. I had Anthony make a snow angel because he never had before. There were parts in the snow we had to watch out for that were stream beds and if we stepped in them our foot would go directly into running water. It was hard to judge at times and we walked away with pretty wet feet. Continuing to walk, we finally came across Kitchen Hut, which is a little shack set up close to the summit for those who get stuck out on the mountain by accident and need a place to stay over-night. We took some pictures and ate our lunch sitting outside the hut on some rocks and watched others walk by and birds fly around. It was really good to have a good lunch and fruit to keep us going with a lot of energy.

We set off for the summit and as we got closer, the trail seemed to get steeper. We were also walking through plenty of flowing water that was coming down the trail. Looking through the binoculars up at the trail to the summit it seemed to become 90 degrees and go through a lot of sin with a lot of loose rocks and lots of chains to hoist yourself up like before…. It seemed like a good idea to not try to kill ourselves getting up there, even though we had really hoped to get to the summit. We judged the time and agreed to go up a little further but that it wouldn’t be a good idea if we didn’t make the last shuttle. So we stayed a bit and admired the views, took a picture of our highest point on the mountain and took a rock from that point. As we hiked down we realized how much more time we would need to carefully walk down the right angled trail with loose rocks.

Finally down on some stable ground we reached Face Track and took a different route back to the car park. This trail lead around the lake in the opposite direction, so technically we were seeing the whole of Dove Lake again but at a different elevation. Anthony seemed skeptical because the trail had a lot more distance than the original trail we took to get up to the top but I encouraged him because I didn’t want to see the same sites again on the way down. This trail led alongside the peak of the mountain and we were able to see Crater Lake which leads into Dove Lake with a water fall. The path became very wet with lots of streams flowing down around us. The foliage was beautiful and plentiful which made getting through certain paths a little difficult. We saw lots of different plants than we had seen on the way up including tropical-looking plants and ever green trees. There were also a lot of animal droppings that we had to avoid which surprised me because at the elevation we were at, although it was a plateau again, I didn’t think wombats or wallabies would be that high up.

We worked our way alongside the mountain which because a thin path looking almost straight down. Here, it became pretty steep and we climbed down past some running waterfalls. My water bottle was empty so I filled it with water from a fresh clean waterfall. Once down a very steep section, we were at this little hut that we had seen from very far away. We went over and explored it. There were medical supplies and things for people who got stuck and needed to stay the night on the mountain. We stopped for a bit to have another little snack and catch our breaths. Once we were back outside and on the trail, the wind started to pick up and the clouds started to roll in. We were very blessed to not have had any bad weather the entire day, but we were eager to get back at this point because it was getting very very cold.

We started to walk a bit faster (even though I felt as though I’d blow off the mountain with the strong wind).  Our ankles began to hurt because the trails were not even so we were stepping on surfaces that were angled very peculiar. (At this point I thought of how much my parents would have loved to do this hike but how little my father would be able to do it because of his foot, and how my mother, like I had all day, would struggle because of our short legs when it came to the parts of the path that needed a good push up the slope…. I was glad I was able to do this young and mentioned to Anthony how I don’t know how all these couples we saw who were well over 40 or 50 were going all the way to the summit). We kept walking and felt like we weren’t making much progress because the trail continually went upward and we were walking on the ridge of the triangle that made up the divider between the two lakes (Dove Lake and another further lake).

We finally joined paths with the Dove Lake Circuit ending and went to go sit on Crater Rock. This rock was very cool to sit on and be hanging over the Lake and see the mountain peak. It seemed a bit risky to get any closer to the edge since there was no railing. We sat and had a snack and admired how wet our pants, shoes and socks were from the hike all day. Finally back in the car park (at 5:30 pm) we loaded onto the last shuttle bus… I kept mentioning how lucky it was we didn’t decided to do any more than we did that day or we whold have had to walk up the 6k road to get back to the Visitor Center in the dark, and after that long 7 hour hike, that is not something we needed more of. The bus driver spotted a wombat behind the bus that was crossing the road and let us get out since we were the only two riding back and I tried to get a picture of him but he spotted me too fast and ran into a bush. Anthony spotted a wallaby hiding in between some bushes and I got pretty close to him before he jumped away. On the way home we spotted several wombats and wallabies along the way….. how had we not seen any yesterday? Even when we got off the shuttle and were walking home we saw a big wallaby hopping across the road and we chased him for a bit.

Once back, feet still soaking, we went to take a shower and get warm and dry. We started dinner (same as the night before) early and gobbled up as much as we could because we were so starved from all the hiking that day. I was relaxing in the room when Anthony called me outside in a hurried voice. I crept out and he pointed to a shadow and said a bush possum went in there and for me to watch. Bush possums are like my equivalent to a raccoon, they are critters that get very used to people and going through their stuff to get food. I crept over to the stairs to see if I could see him better and the little critter was just at the top of the stairs about to turn the corner. I jumped a bit and ran back. I didn’t know how to react to it and Anthony had a good laugh at me. I told him how things like this at home usually have rabies or something to stay clear of. But the bush possum was very accustomed to humans and knew just what to do to get our attention. It crawled over on the railing and I snuck back inside (while it tried very hard to run in under my heals) to get some cookies. We broke up the cookies and watched it eat: it makes really loud crunching sounds which we found very entertaining. We played a bit with it while it sniffed us out and we even pet it. It was very soft and fuzzy. Finally we were running out of food and we thought maybe our noise would disturb the neighbors or attract a fleet of other possums so we tried to lead him away from our door and we ran for it to make sure he didn’t get in. soon after, when we were talking about the possum, we heard a thud on the door. We looked out our window and the possum was almost literally throwing himself at our door. He even came up to the window and looked in. we had a good laugh at that. After we were back safe in the room we listened to some comedy and played some War with the cards I had brought. We passed out soon after because it was a long day…. And like always, we needed to be up even earlier for a 9 am check out. Today was beautiful and I feel like I saw so much of a special part of Australia… not to mention plenty of Aussie’s wild animals.