Cradle Mountain
After stocking up on food, we left Burnie, and headed South to Cradle mountain national park. The majority of the 2 1/2 hours driving was by farm fields reminding me of England or, unfortunately, tree farms and clear cut logging. This changes dramatically once you get near the park, far fewer trees, lots of scrubby growths and it looks like something out of middle earth. Apparently you can only see Cradle mountain 60 days a year due to the weather here, we seem to have timed it very well, arriving to bright sunshine and clear skies.
Hiked to a lookout in the afternoon, nice panoramic views over the glacial lakes of the area. This is the nicest part of Australia I’ve seen yet as far as natural beauty goes.
That night, being St Patrick’s day we went to the park lodge and had some Guinness to celebrate that fact, I’m still amazed that we found Guinness in such a remote location. Next morning we got up early and hiked up to the summit of Cradle mountain, 6 1/2 hours round trip. Beautiful weather for this hike, 2nd day of good weather in a row for this area, lucky me. The hike is always pretty exposed so there’s great views the whole way.
The last hour of the hike is climbing over large boulders to reach the top, loads of fun for me, not so sure the other people doing it thought so though. I’m not going to try and describe the whole thing so here’s photos from it.
Tags: Australia, Travel
Adam
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