Sonja & Ian's Excellent Travel Adventure - Tassie, start of week 2

We overnight at very basic Caravan Park at Mole Creek, which is totally charming in its lack of sophistication. I have to ‘get in line’ to use the rattley old washing machine when I encounter a Grey Nomad Nazi who tells me in no uncertain terms that she was here FIRST, has numerous loads and would take hours. Whatever……!

To Ian’s great amusement we also discover that to get a hot shower: "will be 60 cents per minute, but you can have a cold one for free". That’s country living for you….! 

As mentioned, though, it has its own charm and we love to experience it, all the same. 

Now we’re ready to meander a little longer through Meander Valley and on into Cradle Mountain Country. It’s still raining and misty but all the same really beautiful.

Ian is a legend!  The way he masterfully negotiates the hairpin bends as we wend our way up and down the, at times, rather narrow mountain road toward our Cradle Mountain destination is amazing. I shudder to think how it would be if I had to do the driving!

Since leaving the Meander Valley the landscape yet again rewards us with surprises and takes us from the serenity of lush grazing land to the rugged beauty of majestic mountain terrain.

After a 2 hour trip that keeps us totally captivated with its extraordinary beauty and continually changing landscapes we arrive at the designated (in fact the only) caravan park on Cradle Mountain. Although nowhere near as cold as we had anticipated, the temperature has dropped somewhat and we are instantly drawn to a chalet that is located about 1,500 meters from the caravan park and sports a smoking chimney. My Austrian heart always jumps for joy at the prospect of snuggling in front of an open fire and as it is just beginning to rain, yet again, starting our stay at Cradle Mountain with a celebratory drink seems like a great idea.

After sipping a warming Baileys in front of a cozy wood-fire and with the sun having miraculously reappeared we decide to go for a stroll, thinking that we’ll leave the more serious bush walking till tomorrow. Despite the laughable fact that I have a shopping bag over my shoulder and Ian carries an umbrella  our little stroll turns into a bushwalk-extraordinaire . 

The ‘shortish’ trail we’d chosen for our first walking adventure captures our attention from the very beginning. Again the landscape changes moment to moment and we are so enchanted by the exquisite beauty of the forest that we continue to clamber and stumble along what, in part, proves to be a rather rugged trail. We continue walking for just over an hour before fading daylight helps us make the decision to turn back. On our homeward journey we are excited to spot a number of happily grazing wombats. They are fat and cute and not at all worried as I walk right up to them to take a picture or two. With declining daylight we spot more and more wildlife – now I discover some wallabies which, although not as comfy with my approach as the wombats, still allow me to get close enough to get some reasonable shots.

 

By the time Ian and I get back to ‘The Beast’ we are totally exhausted. It’s been a long day and, although Ian’s body behaved itself so much better today than it had over the past couple of days it decided to rebel at the last stretch of hill and finally had to be cajoled, threatened and dragged by its very weary owner. We collapse into a happy but VERY TIRED heap.