Today is the big hike day. David had planned to do the 6-8 hours hike up to the Cradle Mountain summit. The park is a good 45 minutes drive away and so we were on the road at 8. It started to rain on the way there; it was not pouring, but it was a steady drizzle. When we arrived, it was windy and cold, and I thought it was going to be a miserable day! Luckily the rain stopped when we parked the car at the trail head.
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| Pencil Pine Falls |
Obviously, I was not going with David. So I started with the Dove Lake circuit; it is considered an easy hike and I finished in 2 hours instead of the suggested 2-3 hours. I then took the shuttle bus to the Interpretation Centre, browsed around a bit and had a relaxing lunch at a lookout facing the Pencil Pine Falls. Next I did the short Enchanted Walk - a 20 minutes around a creek. Both of these hikes are highlighted as one of Tasmania's '60 Great Short Walks'.
David's estimated return time was 6pm and it was only 2pm! So I decided to do the Cradle Valley Boardwalk from the Interpretation Centre back to Dove Lake. The walk is 5.5 km and is supposed to take 3 hrs. It took me 1.3 hr to do the first stretch, so I decided to take the shuttle to the next stop and finished the last stretch from Ronny Creek back to Dove Lake. The shuttle driver told me the stretch I did was the toughest and the one I missed was the easiest and nice. Oh well! The hikes took me through different types of terrain, going up and down, into the forest and back out to grassland, and often besides small creeks - quite an interesting walk. I got back to the trail head at 4:45 and began writing this journal ... and guess who showed up at 5:45 :).
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Dove Lake in the foreground, Cradle Mountain in the
background and lush buttongrass moorland |
[
David] This is one of the toughest hikes I've ever completed. It is not the distance / time, nor the altitude, but the crazy (and scary) scrambling over the rocks. Had I known what it was like, I definitely would not have done it alone! Because it had been raining, the ranger at the visitor centre told me not to take the more direct (but steeper) route as water would be gushing down the slopes. The first part of the hike up to the Marions Lookout was quite nice - lush buttongrass moorland at the beginning, a couple lakes and some pretty good views from the different lookouts. It was a steady uphill climb and everything was good.
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| steady and steep climb |
Judging by the altitude change , I thought this was not as difficult as they said. Then I talked to somebody at Marions Lookout and he pointed out my destination - one of those jagged peaks across from where I was standing, and you could actually see a tiny tiny white path going up.
I thought this would be interesting. After a fairly long walk across some rocky terrain - mostly flat and interspersed with boardwalks, I finally reached the emergency shelter called the Kitchen Hut.
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| the tiny trail going up to the summit |
Even though the last part of the trail was flat, it was very very windy. I started with my wind proof toque, then the hood on my Gortex jacket and finally I had to put on the balaclava. I was not cold, I just could not stand the wind whipping my face and head. The Hut is the place where backpackers would drop off their heavy packs to bag the summit. You could see quite clearly the trail going up the mountain. It looked steep, but I reckoned it was quit doable. I sheltered myself from the wind by sitting behind some rocks to have my lunch.
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| the loose stuff at the lower end |
Shortly after the Hut, there is a sign indicating the 2.5 hours return trip to the summit, and this is where the
fun begins. It started with a steep and rocky path, and the rocks get bigger as you go up. At some point, I decided to put away the camera and the hiking sticks to minimize the distractions. Then the climbing (over the rocks) began. To be honest, I had some reservations. But I figured I would stop if I ever come to something too risky. Along the way, I ran into a young guy who flew past me earlier. I assumed he had reached the summit and was on his way down.
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and the rocks got even bigger
(see the girl in a red jacket!!!) |
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the rocks got bigger as you go up &
the trail behind you gets smaller |
But he told me he did not get to the top and there was still quite a way; and that was definitely not very comforting. I plodded along for a while, climbed down and up a pretty big dip in the mountain and eventually reached the summit. Yeah!!!
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| selfie at the summit |
While I was eating my veggies on the top and running around scouting for Kodak spots, I tripped and fell. So I lost all my veggies and a bit of pride ... I was pretty sure the other 3 young people were wondering what and how I tripped ?*&!$ I took some pictures and enjoyed my moments ... I was there all by myself; and then I realized I had better get going. I was worried about being the last person going down, but fortunately somebody showed up as I was leaving.
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| the rock piles at the summit |
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| chain to assist one going up & down |
The scrambling down was easier than I thought, that might be the case because I was all psyched up and was super careful. It also helped as I could see where I was going! I made it back to the hut and thought the worst was over ... but as it turned out, there were still quite a bit of downhill that I must have forgotten on my way up. It was interesting that I found the difficult part easy and vice versa, I can use a bit more positive thinking the next time! I got back on time and in one piece. I enjoyed the challenge and it was fun, but it was a bit on the risky side :)
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| Cradle Mountain Summit |
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