This morning we awoke to a pleasant surprise, dry pavement
Our morning was made for walks and hikes in Cradle Mountain National Park
Our first one was up to glacier rock. I took the little new friend with
The trail system was very nice
Kookaburra sat in the tree with Dove Lake behind them
As it was still cloudy we could just see the bottom of Cradle Mountain in the distance
The land up to the lake and Glacier Rock was quite marshy, but there were very nice walkways out to the hiking paths
Our next walk as up to the recreated cabin of Gustaf Weindorfer.
He was instrumental in getting this area set aside and later created into a National park
In the cabin they had pictures of him and those who help him settle and set up this area
Babs looked into a display they had of what the kitchen looked like in the 1912’s
We wandered on several path’s to explore parts of the forest
The waterfall was running high with the rain the day before
The clouds still hung low as we drove from one trail to the next
Sometimes we had nice wooden walkways through the forested areas
There were tons of small streams throughout
And areas that would have been very challenging to get through
Other times we had nice gravel paths
There was even a bathhouse by the cabin shown earlier. The water was not heated though, so I would guess bathing was not an every day occurrence
Some of the parts we walked through were like a piece of a fairy story
Other were almost semi desert looking
We stop at a couple of different waterfall as the morning went by. The guide told us that the water was running fuller and faster than normal
One of the other hiker said the falls looked like beer running over the rocks and foaming at the bottom
The red on this tree where some bark had been stripped away was very bright and almost painful looking
While the other side of the path was dappled for an instant when the sun peaked out of the clouds
The other waterfalls also had a yellow brown tint to it as mist flowed up from the base
Leaving the park there was a lively other hotel
And our wildlife sighting today was of a wombat as we were heading back to the car for lunch
We returned to the same lodge that we slept in last night, when it was time for lunch
My little wombat friend relaxed by the fire in the lobby while we waited for our guide to head out for our afternoon travels
We made a stop in the town of Tullah. It was one of the many mining towns on the west side of Tasmania.
Rail was one of the two main ways to get to this area
Though the mines have pretty much shut down and many of these towns have been reclaimed by the bush. Some still try to hold on.
This is one of the old engines that is just rusting in the yard of this train station
The old track are still visible here
We next took a few minutes to walk down to this manmade lake
It had a gravel boat ramp
And warning as sometimes more water is released upstream and the lake level raises quickly
We had our tea at the railroad cafe in Queenstown
We got in earlier than planned originally as the longer route we had planned to take was closed due to a large tree falling across the road
Ship or rail were the only ways to really get around this part of Tasmania until mid twentieth century
This is Main Street Queenstown
This is the other way of Main Street
They still run a steam train mainly for tourist
They may be reopening the mine here in Queenstown, but right now it is a quiet small town with most stores closing between 3-5pm and restaurants by around 730pm
We went into the train museum while we were downtown before checking in to our hotel.
This is the last night L’s hotel on the tour. We have tomorrow and then we will be back in Hobart tomorrow night around 6pm and the tour ends when they drop us off at our hotel
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