Cradle Mountain is a national park which is north of (and contiguous with) Lake St Clair National Park – folks hiking the Overland Track start here.We had planned to stop and hike some of the many trails after biking around from Queenstown, and it got bumped off the itinerary with the shortcut to Burnie.
But as Flis was starting to feel more human, and the weather today looked awesome, meat, I mean Cradle Mountain, was back on the menu!
It’s about a 2-2.5h drive from Rosevears, and to get there before the shuttle starts running at 8am (after which cars are not permitted because the access road is so narrow), we had to start our day unethically early.We kept a sharp lookout for animals on the roadside as it grew light, and listened to The Spooky Men’s Chorale (a Tassie choir) sing whacky medlies like “We’ll Give it a Go” and “Don’t Stand Between a Man and His Tool”. Alarmingly, there was frost driving in!
We got there in time to avoid the shuttle, but not early enough to get parking by about 10 seconds (the car in front of us got the last parking spot, gah!). I dropped Flis and the pack off at Dove Lake and drove back to the next parking opportunity, and had a bonus warmup jog 2.5km to the trailhead.
It was a beautiful dayand the Dove Lake circuit is a well graded trailwith great views of the famous mountain.Flis’ strength is obviously coming back! We had our favourite sourdough from Bread and Butter, and my favourite cheese ‘The Hazards’ smoked cheddar. Usually, I’m the one goading Flis into tackling more ambitious hikes, but today it was Flis who egged me into the summit track while she knitted at the best beach on the circuit (7km was already pretty good for day 5 post surgery!).Although I’m sure she would rather have hiked the summit if she was physically up for it, Flis says that going to a gorgeous park and just chilling is pretty lovely. Bizarrely, knitting was a great conservation starter with other hikers.Two cohorts of kayakers with a young guide visited Felicity’s beach. They were careful with their wooden kayaks (made of local pine). The King Billy pine (now protected) grows slowly and has rot resistant timber, which was a hot commodity! Some of the trees in the park are 1500-2000 years old.The summit track added about 7km to my dayand had some steep sections and a bunch of clambering up boulders at the top.
A number of other hikers seemed out of their comfort zones, but I only heard one blood curdling scream, and one minor (unrelated) injury.
Cradle Mountain Summit 1545m with Barn Bluff behind me.After a refreshing swim in Dove Lake,we hiked the rest of the way out, happy not to have the time pressure of the last shuttle bus leaving at 6pm.We headed homewards, stopping in Sheffield (town of murals) for supper.Felicity even let me drive!
Is knitting actually a conservation starter? Only for textile conservators, I think. But, of course, those are the best kind of people to have conversations with.
BC by Cycle 
Is knitting actually a conservation starter? Only for textile conservators, I think. But, of course, those are the best kind of people to have conversations with.
XXXMom
LikeLike