The good thing about living in a small town and working in a pub is that it's easy to make new friends. A couple of days ago, I met a British lad at Irish called Ceri. He's training with the local Cricket team who have an affiliation with his team back home in Oxford. We hit it off straight away over coffee and immediately noticed the same silly things about living out here bother us both; for example: crisps are chips- chicken are blue, cheese and onion are green, BBQ are orange and salt and vinegar are pink! Half their words derive from the UK and the other half from the US (for example; red pepper is capsicum) and don't even get be started on "thongs". People say we speak to same language but at times, I beg to differ...
Thankfully, between us, we managed to organise a trip outside of Launnie. As with most of Tasmania, the only way to see it is by car or organised bus tour. We quickly worked out that the former would undoubtedly be cheaper and we picked up the rental car from Budget the next morning.
Cradle Mountain is situated 2.5 hours west of Launceston in Cradle Mountain-Lake St Clair National Park. The National Park contains Tasmania's highest peak (Mt Ossa) and Australia's deepest freshwater lake (Lake St Clair). We took the scenic route via Deloraine which took about 45min longer than the freeway but worth it just for the views alone. As a driving enthusiast, I loved the tight corners and windy roads. The route is well signposted so it was easy to find. Upon arrival, we stopped at the Visitors Centre to collect our day pass to which we were advised to leave the car in the lower car park and take the shuttle bus. Immediately I thought "brilliant" as it saved on fuel and having to return to the same spot.
The shuttle buses ran every 10 mins or so up until 4.20pm. We hopped off slightly before the others (Ronny Creek) to do the longer trek. This allowed us to walk through the forest via Crater Lake, stopping just above Dove Lake before carrying on up to Marrion's Lookout. Parts of this were extremely steep meaning that at one point, I had to pull my whole body weight up in order to climb any further. The weather was pretty warm and humid for walking but the views totally made up for it! Lunch with THAT view will take some beating! Unfortunately, time got the better of us as we began to make our decent back down to the car park so that we didn't miss the last bus. We had to do an hour long walk in under 45mins, not an easy task I can tell you. Still we made it just in time...along with 300 other people! I couldn't believe the amount of walkers who were waiting for the last shuttle. We must've waited at least an hour and moved 200 yards. By this point I was starting to feel a little anxious about driving back to Launnie as we were fast approaching twilight. Thankfully a fellow walker managed to flag down a passing car and get us a lift with another walker who was driving down the hill. Phew!
The drive home was long but easy and thankfully we made it back before sunset. That's one thing about Australia, driving at night is just too dangerous to risk it in urban areas because of the animals. Not only are you likely to hurt them but they can also do a serious amount of damage to your rental car...so just don't risk it!!!
As above
View from Marilyn's lookout
As above
Cradle Mountain
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