Australia 2020 - Day 11 - Cradle Mountain

Sunday

Happy Australia Day.

We have had torrential rain all night and the forecast for today isn’t great but by 10.00 O’clock it had settled to a light drizzle, so we set off to the Cradle Mountain National Park again.

We took the shuttle bus as far as it goes to Dove Lake where we did the a 6.5 km circular walk, we could easily have been walking in the Lake District around Rydal Water. With the right amount of clothes i.e 5 layers including my new insulating soft shell layer that I bought in Hobart and a wind/waterproof coat it was a great walk.



Apart from a few showers which blew through really quickly it remained dry so we decided to extend our walk to Wombat Pool and Crater Lake – we were actually enjoying ourselves!


From Crater Lake there was another extension and another 200m climb (we were already at 1000m above sea level) to Marion’s Lookout which boasts the best views of Cradle Mountain and the whole park. The climb was steep and the wind was blowing a gale, felt like I was falling off the mountain but the sense of achievement made it worth while.



The descent was much easier and we returned to Ronny Creek where we saw more delightful wombats before catching the shuttle bus back (and the sun is now shining, I do hope this continues).


21,000 steps, 9 miles

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