What an incredible day we had! We stayed overnight in the best
place we have had in Australia, barring the Kearneys, and the flat in Hobart.
It was an amazing haven in a wild land.
The day started off with a visit at our ground floor verandah by some
wallabies. Then Ray and I made a visit to the “Devils@Cradle” where we had a
hands on encounter with Tasmanian Devils, Wombats, and Quolls….and of course
the Wallabies had to get involved too!!
We learned about their life, and how threatened they are. Apparently the
Devils are fighting a disease that is like a cancer that spreads from animal to
animal. The centre is breeding a group of disease free Devils and at the same
time promoting the emergence of a vaccine against the disease. If the vaccine
proves successful, the healthy Devils will be vaccinated and then set free in
the wilds so that the vaccine will spread to the affected Devils and thus they
hope to save the Tasmanian Devils from extinction. They are the cutest little
animals when they are small, quite cuddly, but as they grow older they become
quite feisty. We experienced quite a set too between two brothers and the
growling penetrated the whole area. The Wallabies though, were quite
unaffected. The wallabies are a strange animal and I must look up more about
them……when I get Internet – none tonight!!
After filling our minds and hearts with these beautiful
animals, we set off on our walk in Cradle Mountain Park. The scenery was
amazing…quite different from the BC scenery, but still beautiful: lots of the
button grass, boardwalks over peat bogs, lakes, and mountains. We saw a wombat
by the side of the trail as well! You’ll see the pictures. We drove to the
Visitor’s Centre and parked our car, and then caught the “shuttle” to the Ronny
Creek car park. From there we joined the Overland Track which is a track that
goes from one end of the park to the other – it is about 80k and takes about 6
days to do the whole walk. We followed the Overland Track up to Marions Lookout
at 1223m, up well over 300/400 steps, rocks, scree, and on the deepest of the
rocks we had assistance from chains. It was quite a climb but no worse than
Wahna Picchu or Gros Morne hikes. We had a wonderful view over the spectacular
glacial Crater Lake surrounded by 200 metre high cliffs covered with deciduous
beech. Then we descended past Wombat
Pool with its ancient pencil pines and
on to Lake Lilla. We continued on to Dove Lake with the amazing views of Cradle
Mountain shrouded in the clouds! Cradle
Mountain is so called because it looks like a cradle with a baby in the middle.
Anyway, it would have been an amazing view, but the weather was not totally
cooperating; we had had sprinkling rain on and off for most of the walk, and the
clouds floated in and out over the top of Cradle Mountain so I was never able
to get the much advertised picture of “Cradle Mountain from Dove Lake”. None
the less, the whole experience was amazing. It was close to 7k and it took us
about 3 hours.
We met some really nice people along the way. Everyone says
“hello” and it is quite a study in what a person conveys with these few words. The
Japanese girls are always so upbeat and friendly, the Aussies a little more
perfunctory, but everyone is warm and friendly. We met a lovely French family
and lovely woman from Western Australia whose husband had chosen a different
route and she knew she was going to be arriving far behind him, plus she was
making sooo many stops for photos!! So, although you were in the middle of nowhere,
there were many other hikers that you met along the way.
We caught the shuttle
back to the Visitor’s Centre and grabbed a coffee and a tea in their café
before climbing into the car and heading for Deloraine.
We thought the day
couldn’t get much better but the drive was incredible: we climbed up and down
steep mountains, through the most beautifully treed forests; we passed a dam
and another of the water pipes leading water down the mountains into the dam.
There must be an amazing amount of dams in this area. That is one thing I don’t
recall seeing in the Banff/Jasper area. Then all of a sudden, about 30k from
Deloraine we emerged from all this wilderness and mountain scenery into the
lush green pastures of the plains with highland cattle, sleek black cows, and
sheep. It was like an English countryside. We drove through Mole Creek which
was a beautiful little town, so fresh and open compared to the closure of the
mountains and forests.
And then around 6:30/7:00 p.m we arrived in Deloraine a nice
town surrounded by hills and mountains. We picked up the keys for our “cottage”
on the main street from the Shell gas station, and here we are, in this quaint
little 3 bedroom cottage with a history dating from the late 1800s when the
great-grandfather of the chap who owns it now was sent out to Tasmania for
steeling a coin! It seems much more relaxing to be able to spread out, as
opposed to living in “one” room, and we are enjoying it. Of course, Ray is in
bed, and I am writing my blog on my own!! But, I don’t feel guilty, because I
am in the kitchen at the dining table, and he is in the bedroom all on his own,
so I am not disturbing him. Till I go to bed!! …..and of course, we don’t have
any Internet!!! I am hoping our Aussie
cell phones are working….but that is our only contact with the outside world
and our own world!
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