Cradle Mountain

Nat had a bit more spring in her step this morning with the knowledge Cradle Mountain was only 2hrs drive away.

We were on the road by 8:30am and arrived about 11am after a coffee stop. What was a magic morning in Strahan when we left, soon turned into gloomy overcast skies once we hit the highlands. As we entered the park there was a lookout to view the range, but all you could see was mainly cloud and snow covered parts, the peaks were not visible at all.  The temperature was a balmy 10 degrees, but no rain and fractions of sunlight peering through occasionally. Reasonable weather in these parts.

We got into camp, set up quickly then went to the visitor centre. There are only 50 car parks in the park, so you need park passes to get on shuttle buses to take you to various areas in the park to do walks. We thought to go straight out to Dove Lake to see the mountains firstly while it was OK, and hope that it didn't get worse. Once at the lake we were blessed for a short couple of minutes as the cloud cover lifted enough to see 98% of the range. We got some good shots of it, the lake & the boat shed Nat was raving about needing a photo of. Once again, we had some good luck in terms of timing. The majority of people that come here don't get to see what we did today (apparently they only have 50-60 days per year clear enough to see the peaks) so we were stoked as you can imagine.

After this we did another short walk to Pencil Pine Falls which was cool, then the rain came. Not fierce bucketing type rain we Queenslanders are used to, just this consistent misty-cold  rain. Everything just remains so wet in this climate. It's like the fog is constant and never dissipates.

In saying that, it is certainly an amazingly beautiful place. I actually like the cold and enjoy this sort of weather, although the wetness would get to you after a while.

After a coffee in the local cafe, we went back to camp & ventured over to the camp kitchen which had this cracker fireplace that I got happening. There was a huge log room for fuelling it, all readily chopped and piled high for you to smack on top of the coals. That in itself is very cool, the smell of chopped firewood inside a stoneblock cabin is tremendous. Mav didn't like the smell but I could have put a chair in there and sat there easily while I read my book. Pity it was bloody cold in there.....

Once the fire was cranking, we did dinner in there also and just hung around. The boys listened to a couple of audio books, mum & dad had a few drinks by the fire. It was nice.

Mum took Mav back to bed while Z & I just sat by the fire and played silly buggers.

When I returned Mum told us about the possum that came into the tent & took a seat on the porta-potty, and the other one that took the fat tray out of the webber. This was pretty funny considering she was telling us from in bed wearing her scarf!

The wildlife is in abundance here, we have been here a few short hours and seen wombats, pademelon wallabies, possums & crows that will take the bread out of your hand if you're not careful.

All in all a good start to our 2 nights here. Rain forecast for tomorrow, so we will see what we can do.

Jase.