Category: Cradle Mt NP

Hello!
I have kinda run out of time tonight to get my photos post processed from yesterday. Plus my computer hangs about ‘not responding’ a lot tonight so I am going to gracefully exit stage left instead of having a hissy-fit at it!!

Jeff and I decided that an 8km hike around Anniversary Bay was the best thing to do this afternoon… it was meant to rain but ended up so beautiful!
Mum and Dad sensibly opted out of more hiking!

Yesterdays lunch guest! The currawongs are so bold about getting in and trying to nick your sandwiches!! I love them!

Hope everyone has a lovely day!
Cheers

Pip and I are thrilled to have our Jeff back!
So proud he made it and did really well over the course of the week which was pretty challenging weather wise alone!

I left about an hour earlier than I originally planned and glad I did as it took 4 hours to get down to Lake St Claire!!
Wow… so many slow vehicles on the road. The caravans and RV’s were excessively slow due to the weather and the narrow steep winding roads. However they all turned out to let me pass as soon as they could. The cars were another matter. One of the last ones I got stuck behind was just an inconsiderate… (looking for a creative non-swear word) (ok… you insert one, too tired to do it myself and all the ones I used on him aren’t polite)
Seriously… 40km seemed to be the fastest he could go around a corner – mostly doing 60 in a 100 zone… but due to the curvy nature of the road and weather not many overtaking possibilities. As soon as a nice long stretch appeared – the miserable worm jumped on the accelerator which made my chances of getting by him impossible. Then he dropped back to 60. Grrrr
I understand people driving extra slow and careful on those roads with the weather. But there were plenty of places to pull over as the caravans did!
I finally got him even though he sped up again  – Had to push the poor Triton up to 130!!
I wanted to get to Jeff before nightfall!

I managed to get to Lake St Claire about 5 minutes after Jeff walked in! I got a very emotional hug from a VERY soggy husband!! The poor beggar was cold and wet through. The last day had been a very testing one for him.
A rat got into his day pouch and ate his last days rations, he had to sleep in the tent last night as the last hut he went to was over crowded – and he didn’t sleep. And the rain. So he was low on energy and very ready to be home!

I know he was really happy to see me, but I suspect he was even happier to see dry undies. haha

Most of the days despite the forecast I had been looking at, had been rain free. Jeff was pretty much first into each hut and had changed and eaten and got fairly early nights, then early starts.
He met a lot of nice people too.
Funny thing… the first day?? I pretty much met everyone (and chatted because I am like that) on the hike on the way back to the car on Monday. People kept rolling into Waterfall Valley, meeting Jeff and saying “Oh – you’re Jeff. I met your wife!” So pretty much like a bizarre form of Chinese Whispers Jeff worked out that I had made it back to Ronney Creek safely because the last girl into the camp said she met me for a chat at the end of the boardwalk not so far from the carpark!!

The rangers said on that first day there were sustained 60km/hr winds with 90km/hr gusts! No wonder we got blown off the pathways!! Happily it calmed down a lot after that first day.

The rivers and waterfalls were spectacular with all the rain. I can’t wait to see them in a few weeks!
No chance of running out of water up there at the moment!

Anyway – Jeff took my ’emergency husband rescue bag’ and got changed into clean dry clothes and felt a million dollars better. He said goodbye to some of his walking mates and we got into the car. I had a thermos of hot water, so made him a coffee, then he fanged through a few sandwiches and washed them down with chocolate chip bikkies!

It was a great trip home – swapping stories of the past week. It was still slow but just nice to be together (and warm and dry!)

Sorry no extra photos! You’ll have to wait until its my turn on the mountain!
Off to bed… ridiculously tired tonight!
Cheers
xx

Hello!
Oh my giddy aunt, what a wild day up on the mountain!
Jeff and I drove off early so he could get a good start on the Overland Track this morning.
Our visitors Ruth and David who originally planned to come and do the first day with us decided quite sensibly to do something else that didn’t entail getting drowned up at Cradle and waved goodbye from their room at the top of the stairs and went back to warm beds!

I have hardly any photos because taking the camera out in todays weather would have been akin to throwing it in the lake!

The difference from a couple of weeks back with the water running everywhere was pretty amazing.

After packing and repacking his bag, I hope Jeff has everything he needs over the next week.
I accompanied him up as far as Kitchen Hut today… carrying a fair few kilos myself. Somebody wanted a thermos of hot coffee.
(Good wife!)

I had a lot of useless weight in my pack.
2 litres of water – of which I drank none as it all soaked in from the outside so I was very well hydrated.
Camera – ok… got a few snaps and wish it had of been convenient to get it out to take more photos but…
Food that I didn’t really eat
Thermos of coffee
And the cleverest thing of all… my puffy jacket NOT in a waterproof bag so I was basically carrying around 5 kg of a water soaked jacket… think ‘sponge’
(Eye-roll… sometimes I really am a bit daft)(a lot daft)

Anyway… we went up the Horse Track today to avoid the steeper incline of Marions Lookout.
We went along pretty well – I didn’t hold up Jeff at all. Felt like I had a bit more oomph today.
The steps were simply waterfalls. The pathways mostly under water.
We had to wade through streams that had risen a lot higher than we have normally seen and the wind was phenomenal! We were literally blown off the track a few times!!!
The rain I thought was hail at first because it was coming in sideways & stinging our faces. It was fabulous and I loved it!
Jeff said he was thinking it was mad and maybe he should be turning back then looks at me with a grin plastered across my face lapping it all up (literally and figuratively) and thought I was insane. (Probably just the hypothermia speaking haha)
After a particular strong burst of wind and rain, he says (shouts) to me ‘Its not so much the heat that gets to you as the humidity’ 😀

We were the first people up to Kitchen Hut that morning. I really didn’t feel super super cold, but my hands weren’t working effectively.
I won’t go into details about how hard it was going to the loo and trying to get my sodden pants back up.
The coffee was pretty darn good!
It was at this point I discovered my jacket error.

After our cuppa and a quite bite to eat (I had 5 biscuits (crackers)) we parted ways. A couple of cold soggy kisses and Jeff disappeared into the mists.
I really hope the weather clears up for him so he is not just a big damp Canadian for 7 days.
I can’t check up on him at all so just have to hope he does alright and is there when I go down to collect him next Sunday!

I headed off back via Marions.
I started to meet the other travellers as I went back. Some looked happy and embraced it all… others looked a bit shell-shocked.
The wind on the exposed top quartre of Marions was diabolical! At times I just planted my feet and braced into it. I had to take a lot of sections carefully and thoughtfully as it was easy to be thrown off balance.

Back at the car, at least I had put in a bag with clean clothes, so I was able to get mostly dry-ish and into dry stuff for the drive home.
I treated myself to lighting the fire tonight.

Hope everybody’s week has started fantastically!

Cheers

Hi!! Haven’t quite fallen off the face of the earth… meant to do a post before we went up to Cradle but the main phone company in Tasmania (Telstra) had a bit of a hiccough and phone/internet connections went down across the state! Fast intro into unplugging!

Anyway… we took the boys up to Cradle Mt National Park and stayed overnight in a cabin that was really great. Did a walk around the lake on the first day and dragged them up the mountain today.

They were happy to pose whenever I asked!! (its a usual thing around me)

On the way back from our walk yesterday we nearly got run over by this fellow!!

He walked up to us no fear at all!!

Today we did Marion’s Lookout, then over to Cradle and did the Face Track back to the carpark

They did fantastically for city boys who have never done this kind of thing before!!

Anyway… only dropping in briefly tonight as I have another long day of driving… taking them back to Launnie as they are flying out to Melbourne/Ballart for a few days (you know.. if all goes to plan) to stay with Rachel.
SO… bedtime for a very tired me!

Cheers

OK – so I failed at staying in bed all day.
Does it count that I didn’t get out of my nightie?
As expected, I am sore all over but still pretty thrilled we got to the summit of Cradle.

Jeff was more than happy to be up hiking mountains rather than up on ladders painting!

It was really hot work at times. I didn’t get the camera out until we reached Marions Lookout. I was struggling until we reached Crater Lake (above) where I took my shoes and socks off and went for a wonderful dip fully clothed. Fiona had the good sense to do likewise and it really gave us the energy boost we needed. To be honest I could have stayed there the rest of the day swimming!

We felt like we were really high here… which in comparison to the summit of Cradle, it wasn’t that high at all !!

I love heading across the plains

You can see the tracks faintly scarring the mountainside

The red shows you the approximate ‘path’ and the arrow is the top point we reached (1545mt/5068ft)

Its such a rugged path. Slabs of dolerite from the Jurassic period litter the surface and create a wonderful challenge of making your way up to the top.

Fiona and I stopped fairly regularly and the views were always stunning

At this point it seemed like we were at the top. The rocks levelled out somewhat and we could see views over the other side

However… at the top we were not.
Just over this little rise we were confronted with the final challenge:

Down we had to go for a short distance before a final climb that seemed almost vertical. This is where a walking buddy was essential for people with short legs and heavier bottoms backpacks.

Time to put the camera back in my backpack and tackle that climb

It was so great to make it to the top.

A few people enjoying the moment and the view.
We climbed 665mt/2181ft to make it to this point.

Rock-hopping terrain

To me it seemed like a giants game of Jenga gone mad…

As I mentioned yesterday, coming down was almost as hard a work as going up… although I prefer gravity on my side so I was definitely faster!
After 14km/8.7miles hiking it was bliss to get back down to Dove Lake and splash around in the cold water before the drive home!

Fabulous way to spend a day!

Cheers

Hi there… We finished the weekend in style by deciding to go and attempt to get to the summit of Cradle Mt
We have wanted to do this for a while, but with one thing or the other, hadn’t gotten around to it (Weather, lack of time etc)

We went with Fiona and Paul which made for a great day out together.
Getting to this point was an effort in itself. Fiona and I sensibly jumped into crater lake on the way up (fully clothed) which was gorgeous. So refreshing!

I had to put my camera away for a lot of the climb… there was a rough path for a while but then…

It got rocky.

And then it got seriously rocky.

But the views were magnificent

You have to go through a false summit or two before tackling some really tricky inclines before getting to the top!

Getting back down the rocky mountain was no less challenging. The only plus was gravity was on our side (at times a little too much on our side – because whichever way you looked at it… falling down was not going to end comfortably)

Yup… that was the way down. Choose your own adventure ‘path’
Its a wonder I didn’t wear a hole in the seat of my pants as often the only sensible way of getting down was sitting and scootching over the edges!

I probably don’t need to tell you how tired and sore I am right now. I think we were out there about 8-9 hours.
I am making no promises to return tomorrow with more photos/details from today because tomorrow I have no intentions of getting out of bed. 🙂
Despite all, we were pretty proud of ourselves and it was an amazing day!

I’ll chat again once I can move again…

Cheers!

It was time to get further out into the great outdoors!
Jeff asked me yesterday if I’d like to go up to Cradle Mt to see what it looked like in the snow!
The weather was looking positive, so I jumped on board with the idea, then rang our cousin, Fiona who also keenly joined in the snow party!

We seriously could not have had a better day – sky was clear blue and the snow powdery and beautiful!

We headed up the Horse Track, and back via Marion’s Lookout. A scenic route that had us on the go for about six hours.

It didn’t take us long to have to start shedding the layers… in fact, Fiona was hiking in a singlet top there for a while!

I had gone as far down the clothes scale as I could without hiking in my bra! It really was that hot earlier on in the day!

This is me looking very cool (and not so cold) hiking up the Horse Track

In reality – I fell down a lot!! Some of those drifts were pretty deep and had us floundering about a fair bit!

Today I was head in the blue skies and feet in the snow…

The view at Crater Peak was, as usual, fabulous. We ate lunch up here!

Trudging along towards Cradle to get onto the Overland track, and back via Marion’s Lookout… we were the first along some of the areas – the poles helped our direction but still didn’t help up stay on the track!

I think the snow patterns are as pretty as the sand ones!

Tastes good too…

(Yes – we know this is a no-no, but we weren’t in any sort of hypothermia danger at that point!!)

Beautiful views over past Barn Bluff!
We met a Canadian couple who just set off on doing the Overland Track today! They had a brilliant day to start. I hope they have a wonderful adventure… I am still not 100% convinced I want to do that in the snow.
(We need to get a lot more suitable gear before that happens anyway!)

There is a creek under that snow at the bottom!

By this point the sun was getting lower in the sky and we were putting more clothes back on

It was a bit of a slow descent down Marion’s… mostly because at that point lots more people had been on the track in that area so the packed snow had become icy. However… the trail through the snowy trees was a delight!

Time for a quick ‘Jeff & Lisa’ snap (Thanks Fiona!) where you can see by the colours we were racing the setting sun. Brrrrr

Plenty of fat wombats were out having their breakfast by the time we got back to the Ronnie Creek car park

We got back to the car a bit later than we wanted to (Not that you can jog off the mountain in ice and snow to hurry) but we then endured a slightly terrifying drive home over a LOT of black ice! Jeff did an amazing job. We seriously turned out of the car park, up the first hill when the car proceeded to go sideways and backwards!!!
I would have given up then and there and funded a hotel room somehow, but Jeff carefully & skillfully traversed the narrow slippery roads out of Cradle. It was the slowest drive out we have ever done! Was quite the relief to hit the major roads!

So there you have it – fun, excitement beauty and terror all in one day!

Cheers!

(PS – I have now added another 230 images to my post processing issues!!) 😀

Hello!
I am so tired! 6am is NOT my optimal starting time!!
I won’t be doing justice to todays adventure, so I am mostly going to throw a few photos at you from todays hike that I managed to get post processed.

Our cousins invited us to go with them to Cradle Mt today to see the Fagus – Tasmania’s only native deciduous tree, Deciduous Beech (Nothofagus gunnii
Its autumn colours are almost in full swing and its really lovely to see.

We walked the Hounslow Heath Track which was really beautiful

The track was a quagmire – roots, rocks and mud puddles!! So much fun!

You spend the first hour trying to keep your feet dry. Then when the battle is totally lost, you feel liberated and slosh through any and all puddles, mud, streams & creeks without a care in the world. (And snug in the knowledge the car has been packed with clean clothes & a towel)(See? We are learning!)

This Currawong stalked us for a while – thought it could get some food! Such cool and clever birds! (And a little freaky looking haha)

We did a lot of puddle jumping today – yep, thats the track!

So many beautiful pandani everywhere

Time for me to get some sleep!
Have a wonderful day!

Cheers

Another day, another day my garden has been neglected. The good news is, Rosemary brought along her gardening clothes! (evil laugh – can’t wait to put her to work!!)
However – we were totally keen to drag her on our latest favourite hike. The weather was forecast was good, and also being a smidge before the Easter madness – we decided to go today.

So… have I convinced everyone to come see us and go hiking yet?

I am so tired right now! That’s three days hiking in a row and today was about 5 hours or so. The weather was gorgeous – the clouds dramatic and it was so great to have Rosemary with us to catch up and show off the places we have found.

I love this cushion moss – it looks so spongy and soft – but its hard as a rock! It does my head in! Its hard to resist touching it just to make sure! And its so pretty.

As usual we had a lot of up and down scrambling.
Before we got to this point we caught up with a young family who were heading along this track – they had two toddlers with them! The youngest may not have been 2 years old yet. We talked to them and told them that the track was not really safe for the children and suggested they go back via Horse Track where we came up – more gradual. It would have been a real danger for them. They walked along a little further then we saw them turn back. At the least – it would have taken them until midnight to guide the kids off the mountain! Toddlers don’t hike very fast – and you wouldn’t want them to up there!

We avoided the Twisted Lakes Track that we did last time due to time constraints. We had to take the shuttle bus back to the visitors centre as the car park was too full to drive up this time. Last bus at 5pm.
This new track had a whole new level of ‘going down’

Pretty glad the family turned back – they would have had to have lowered the kids down on ropes!! This was a lot of ‘straight down’

Anyway… just a few snaps as I am about to fall off my chair!

Hope everyone who is celebrating Easter has a really nice looooong weekend!

Cheers!