Tasmania - Day 7

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Today it was the big day. We had a 6-7 hour walk around the highest mountain in Tasmania. The highest is Mount Cradle where according to the statistics,

- The average rain on that mountain is 7 out of 10 days.
- Cloudy: eight out of 10 days.
- Foggy 54 days a year
- Bright sunny day, 36 days a year (1 in 10).

So on paper it didn't look like we were gonna see anything and when we got there in the morning it looked like we were about to have a horrible day. Just compare the photo taken yesterday with the photo taken today in the morning:

Yesterday

Today in the morning

yeah...I bet "let's climb that mountain" is not the first thought that pops into your head when you see the second photo. ;-)

On the first photo though it's almost as if it were calling you, isn't it? :-)

Yesterday when we got to the park it was a sunny day and we had a clear blue sky so John, the guide, suggested going to lake Dove in order to take a picture at Mount Cradle since it was very hard to predict what the weather would be like today and we might not have the chance to take a picture today...wise man... compare both pictures above! one from yesterday the other from today :-)

The walk was quite a long one, it took us about 6 and a half  hours and it went through mountains, lakes, forest, rainforest. A great variarity of landscapes and weather!

Apparently the previous week they had a glorious day all day and they all went to the sumit of Cradle mountain, today by the time we reached the base of the mountain there was quite a little bit of fog and there was no point going there since we wouldn't see anything, however on the other side of the mountain, in the middle of the cradle it was alright so we climbed that bit and once on top, we had lunch there and the sky suddenly opened up and the sun made an appereance. :-)

We started off with the hardest part, the climb to Marion's lookout. Some of the parts of this trail had a chain you could hold yourself to and use to help you with the highly steep climb, it was cold down at the lake and as we were climbing we were taking cloths off, but once at the top, it was quite windy and cold so we had to put everything back + anything else you could find in your rucksack that could help you with the cold. From there we went to Kitchen hut (mostly at the same level) then we went up again to the middle of the cradle in cradle Mountain then down all the way up to the lake and finally we walked around the lake all the way, up to the car park.

After Marion's lookout the rest of the walk was mostly downwards or at the same level. Going downwards was probably harder than going upwards though. The most impresive thing about this walk was the continuos change of landscapes and the most challenging was to have the right amount of jumpers on at all times. ;-)

Climbing Marion's lookout

The chain I was talking about

Photos from Marion's lookout

Walking towards Kitchen hut

From Kitchen hut we headed for the middle of the cradle

There we stopped to have lunch

Then down to the lake again

At times the descend was quite steep, luckily on this part of the mountain also had some chains we could use to slow down our descend. :-)

And out of the blue we get into a temporary rainforest

And next thing you know, we are back at the lake, walking all around it to get back to the car park

After the long walk we went to the pub to get some well deserved beverages of all kinds.

When the time came, we all hopped onto the bus and made our way to Devonport from where we'll have to depart tomorrow night, but on the way there we passed by some interesting areas:

I may have started a trend with this thing of taking photos out of the road signs...the first times John thought I was nuts but in the end he used to stop knowing I would be ready with my camera at hand when we passed close to one...and soon everyone was joinning me and taking photos of all these unusual road signs. :-)

Once at Devonport we went for a short walk in the outskirts, by the beach

Then we went to grab some dinner and I couldn't resist to take this photo

It looks like taken from one of those apocalyptic films where the end is coming! doesn't it?


Finally we made it to the house, which by the way was the most impressive house we've seen in the whole trip. Totally huge!

and now think of 4-5 rooms like this one

Plus the two bathrooms, the dinning room, kitchen and games room (yes, it even had a games room!).

We had dinner, some of us had a fantastic pizza others opted for fish and chips.

Then some of us decided to play BlackJack and I was the very professional crouppier that always cleans up the players from their hard earned cash...although in this case, for their relieve, we were playing with poker chips.

It took some time but in the end I got all their money...remember, in the end, the house always wins. :-)


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