Day three - Cradle Mountain National Park (1)

Bonjour, see how good I am, updating twice in two days! Today has been
an exhausting, but very enjoyable day. For the third day in a row I
was up uber early; set my alarm for 7 so I got up and made the most of
the day. As breakfast wasn't until 8 at the earliest, I thought I
would go on one of the local short walks around the complex. According
to a leaflet I was given, the one I did would take 45 minutes, perfect
time for brekkie. Well either the leaflet maker can't tell the time
correctly, or I just walked really fast, as I was done in 15
minutes...so off I went on another short walk. 45 minutes of walking
done even before the day had even started, go me!

After breakfast I got in my car, drove the 15 minutes to reach the
main road, and off I went to Cradle Mountain National Park. I should
have mentioned that I awoke to beautiful weather, this had certainly
changed by the time I reached Dove Lake, today's destination. It was
blowing a gale and it was abso-bloody-lutely freezing; before my walk
had even started, it had been sleeting; this did not bode well for my
hike. However, on I went, and 5 minutes in, it started to snow a bit,
which then changed to rain, sleet and back to snow. It seemed the
weather could definitely not make up it's mind but at least I got to
see some snow close to Christmas. I pushed onward and upward
(literally), getting the odd glimpse of the fabled Cradle Mountain -
apparenly one of the most photographed places in Tasmania. At about
the half way mark I had to climb up a bloody steep section which even
had a hand rail which I most certainly gripped on to with dear life,
especially with the ridiculously strong gusts combined with the odd
snow flake. After getting a bit cocky, I decided to extend my circuit
a little bit,taking the longer route back. This turned out to be a bit
of a mistake. It wasn't a little longer, but probably two hours
longer. To top things off, I also got slightly lost and had to do a
bit of rock climbing to get back on track (I'm a true outdoors man now
don't you know!). Anyway, I eventually finished the circuit which was
suppose to be 7.5km, and take 3 hours; It took me about 5 hours, and
what seemed like 100km.

This was not the end of my day, as I decided to punish myself further.
At this point the Tasmanian weather lady had changed the weather to
pretty much clear skies - I think I experienced all seasons weather
today! I still kept wrapped up warm though as I remained cold. T
shirt, my jacket suitable for Arctic weather, and my coat on top,
coupled with gloves (a last minute addition to the bag that saved my
life today - if only I had thought if my hat too...). That's more
clothes than I wore in Svalbard!!! Anywho, I diverge, I decided to
catch a bus half way back to where my car was parked, and walk the
rest of the route, perhaps 4km. This turned out to be the highlight of
my day as the area was so lovely (pictures will follow at some point).
All of that before 4 oclock; I now see why people get up so early!

I drove home, soaking up the scenery and the sunshine, thinking i was
very ready for a sit down....this wasn't the case...! After getting
back, I thought it would be stupid to waste such a fine afternoon
sitting inside, so off I went once more on another of the local walks,
this time to visit some waterfalls; a very pleasant 6km walk. By the
time I neared thelodge, I was completely shattered. My legs ached sooo
much that I stumbled into my room. So that's been my day - lots of
walking involved which I may regret in the morning, but it was
definitely worth it.

The rest of my evening will be spent looking at my photos - I don't
think the morning ones will be very good (it was cold and wet and I
didn't want to stand around playing with the settings), but hopefully
I got some nice ones from this arvo. I have also got a lovely wind
burnt face with a nose that competes with Rudolph, at least it's
festive I guess!

Who knows what tomorrow will bring. I have a feeling that I won't be
able to move!