Hi readers!

It was a pretty rough sleep yet again because it was absolutely pissing down rain and the wind was extreme. This proved to be very loud in our little cottage.

Today we drove to what we considered to be one of the most looked-forward to places on the trip – Cradle Mountain. We drove for approximately 2.5 hours to get there. Along the way we stopped at a nice little bakery and bought some ham/salad rolls for our lunch and some sneaky shortbreads for later.

When you get to Cradle Mountain you need to stop by the visitor centre who validate your park pass which you need to buy as Cradle Mountain is in a national park. The information centre is huge and the car park is enormous. You can tell pre-COVID that they would get a stack of tourists here. After they validate your pass you jump on a shuttle bus which takes you into the park to one of the many lookouts/hikes.

We decided to go to the final stop as we already had our hike planned out. Today we walked the Dove Lake Circuit. It is a 6km hike which is a part of the ‘60 great Short Walks’ in Tasmania. The hike takes you around the perimeter of Dove Lake and has views of Cradle Mountain. The views during this hike were absolutely stunning.

At the beginning you look out over the lake towards cradle mountain, which was a bit misty as it had been raining earlier, but so beautiful.

As you walk, the scenery changes into rainforest where you’re walking on a boardwalk with hanging mossy trees. It’s was also really beautiful.

Toward the end you come to a spot at the lake which has a boat shed. It is like something out of a painting, just spectacular.

The hike was about 6kms long so not too bad, gave us a bit of a workout but it was all about them views. Just lovely.

After this we took the bus back and went to check into our cabin. We stayed in a lovely cabin near the lodge which was just what we needed and really suited the overall experience. We chilled out here for a little while drinking hot chocolates and eating shortbreads before heading back out to our next activity.

In the evening we went over to the lodge which had the Waldheim Alpine Spa. This was special. We got into robes and were escorted to our private spa which we had for 45 minutes. This included a sauna, steam room, plunge pool, lounges, ginger beers and the best of all, a hot spa that was outside and overlooked a stunningly beautiful stream within the rainforest.

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This experience was serene and glorious. We cannot overstate how relaxing and amazing this was.

After this we walked over to the tavern for dinner. The tavern is exactly what it ascribes to be. We had another ginger beer and a couple of pizzas which were of average quality, but not bad by any means.

We’re leaving Cradle Mountain tomorrow unfortunately for more adventures! 100mm of rain is predicted for where we are going tomorrow – we will see how we go.