Cradle Mountain
Trip Start
Nov 02, 2009
1
15
21
Trip End
Nov 25, 2009
Marrawah, Tasmania, Australia
Wednesday, November 18, 2009
Bit of trivia…Mount Black is the highest mountain in the Southern Hemisphere with trees at its summit…also has Australia's steepest Golf course.
Next stop is Cradle Mountain, we arrive at 10.30am,so many people & buses everywhere, decide its best to make use of the Shuttle bus service, which you can get on & off at various points along the road to Dove Lake, great idea no worrying about parking then. We managed to do a few of the walks, that was pretty good considering Peter had a bad ankle. We did the Enchanted Walk & Pencil Pine Falls & Rainforest; both near the start, then caught the shuttle to Dove Lake. There was a bit of snow on the mountain, beautiful view of the lake, so lucky again with the weather, the sun was out making it a nice day.
We saw a fellow heading off to do the hike over to Lake St Clair, armed with walking stick & huge backpack...keen. The terrain is now more like snow country vegetation as we take the walk from Dove Lake to Ronny Creek, then from there to Snake Hill. On the boardwalk on the way back, we spotted a wombat, didn’t seem too fazed by us tourists, I guess the wild life would be use to the invasion to a certain degree. We caught the shuttle back to the car park from Snake Hill.
Time to move on again, having lunch at Waratah, mind you lunch for us these days has been rather late, it was 3pm,hot chip sandwiches ,haven’t had one of these for ages. Now Waratah should have been called Gorse,because as you got closer the paddocks are full of yellow Gorse bushes,did see a few Waratahs. Not much here, some of the locals aren’t happy that the Pub doesn’t open till 3.30pm,scandalous.
Bit of trivia….Tin was discovered here in 1871 at the foot of Mount Bischoff by James Smith, this venture became the world’s richest tin mine, making a huge contribution not only to the town, but to Tasmania’s overall prosperity.
As we were heading to the North West Coast, you have to double back to go to Devonport, we decided to go straight through to Marrawah, stopping at Wynyard to get a few things, didn’t get to Marrawah till 6.30pm.Stayed light till about 9pm,nice spot,but the wind had come up by then & it was a tad cold.Will sightsee on the way back to Devonport.
Bit of trivia…they have Ripcurl Surf championships at Marrawah
