Cradle Mountain National Park Tasmania

Yesterday we said good bye to Tom, Kristy, Harry and Zara. We had spent a wonderful 2 weeks exploring Tasmania together creating great memories. The weather forecast warned of dangerous wind gusts of up to 100km so our plan was to get to Lake Gairdner and park away from any tall trees. The drive through the forest was a bit hair raising but we only encountered one tree over the road that luckily had already been chainsawed to let us pass. The lake is very popular but as we arrived at 11am we had a few choices of spots. We listened to the cracking and falling of trees in the nearby faorest. Even the small tree next to us cracked in half. By the end of the day the place was packed. It’s known for its platypus sightings but unfortunately we didn’t get to see any.

It was our coldest night so far 7°C inside Buster. Even the  car next to us turned on her engine at 5am to get warm! Anyway we managed to fall back asleep until 7am then got ready to go drive 24km to the Cradle Valley carpark.

After a substantial breakfast of bacon and eggs we paid our $15 each for 72hrs use of the shuttle bus into the National Park. It leaves every 10-15mins from 8:10am to 5:30pm. 

We decided that as we had done Dove Lake 28 years ago we would choose a walk from Ronny Creek via Waldheim, Crater Lake, Marion’s Lookout to Dove Lake. PS the green highlighted track.

It is the official start of the Overland Track to Lake St.Clair.

We diverted to Waldheim where the we visited the replica of the hut of Gustav Weindorfer and his wife Kate, who declared the area should become a national park in 1910. 

From the hut we did a quaint short forest walk.

We then doubled back and followed the overland track up to Crater Lake. 

Along the way we passed Crater Falls. 

Shortly after we spotted the boat shed at one end of the lake. 

The trail then meandered along the lake. 

We continued on to Marions Lookout at 1223m alt. It was a steep climb in sections we even had to use the chains provided to help us get there. The effort was worth it with amazing views of Cradle Mountain and Dove Lake.  

After a respite we made our way back down to the track leading us to Dove Lake. It took us past Wombat Pool.

 Over the hill and then down to Lake Lilla. 

From here it was again up and over to the famous Dove Lake Boat Shed. 

We decided to call it a day after 9+km/4.5hours. We returned to Buster and after a couple of refreshing drinks parked up to stay the night ready for tomorrow’s adventures.