Cradle Mt is only a 2 hour drive from us and it makes a fabulous day trip, complete with picnics, wildlife and beautiful scenery.
Cradle Mountain forms the northern end of the wild Cradle Mt – Lake St Clair National Park.
The area is formally recognised through World Heritage listing as being part of the natural and cultural heritage of the world community. The core area was inscribed on the World Heritage List in 1982 on the basis of all four natural criteria and three cultural criteria, at the time satisfying more criteria than any other World Heritage property on Earth.
Pretty awesome that we live near it! 🙂
There are a variety of walks, ranging from an easy 20 minutes, right up to a fairly challenging 6 day hike on the Overland Track. (This is on my “to do” list)
Some areas are dark and knotted with moss covered trees
And others more open and scrubby
The variety of lichens fascinate me
We enjoy bringing our visitors here – usually after a picnic lunch, we tackle the 3 hour walk/hike around Dove Lake.
Sometimes we get brilliant sun –
And other days you might be lucky to see Cradle!
Personally I like the misty damp days best. It brings out brilliant colours – especially in the trees
There is a fantastic path, mostly boardwalk, the entire way around Dove Lake, and the view of the mountain constantly changes
Winding your way through the scrub
At times the path leads you down to small beaches
Where your view of Cradle Mt changes again
You find small determined plants, literally growing out of the rocks
And the unique Pandani stand out in the landscape
My favourite part of the walk is entering the Ballroom Forest
Quite often you will see wildlife
The boatshed that stands on the northwestern shores of Lake Dove was built in 1940 by the first Ranger at Cradle Mountain, Lionell Connell & is quite a landmark on the lake. The shed was built largely from King Billy pine. Although some restoration work was completed in 1983, the shed remains pretty much unaltered from its original form – It can be a tricky proposition to get a photo sans-tourists as its a popular place for photos
We are hoping to return soon to do a different walk with Emma and Mana – if the weather isn’t too dreadful.
Enjoy the weekend all!
Cheers
Lisa, I love your blog and especially your photos! Thank you so much for sharing your beautiful corner of the world! Karen
Thank-you Karen! Its a pleasure to share this area around a little bit!
I think tourism Tasmania should hire you…I feel like jumping on a plane
right now. Love your blog Lisa. A big hi from Ontario Canada.
lol – thank-you! Its wonderful to have a small platform to share Tassie with! My Husband is from Hamilton – but we haven’t been back to Canada in an eon – keen to see more of it when we do!
Breathtaking photos! Enjoying your blog very much 🙂
Thank-you – put Cradle on your ‘to do’ list when you pop in to Tasmania! Its amazing! 🙂
What a wonderful and magical place! Thank you for the tour as I know I’ll never see it in person
oooo – Never say never!! But I am glad to share it so people can see it! Glad you enjoyed it!!