Rainy Day Walks

When we woke up Thursday morning it was raining-a lot, and it didn't stop until mid afternoon Friday.  We made the best of it and headed to the visitor center.  We looked at the maps of the various walks we could do around the park and drove to Dove Lake where we would be hiking Friday and Saturday.  On the way back out of the park we stopped at Waldheim.  Gustav Weindorfer, an Austrian who moved to Australia, built a guest cottage in 1912 for visitors to the Cradle Mountain area.  He was a strong supporter of the area becoming a National Park.  The original guest cottage is no longer there but there is a replica cottage.  We took a look around and went on a short hike that started at the cottage.  It was a gorgeous walk and everything was covered in moss.  It looked like a scene out of a movie.  We also stopped at the ranger station and did the Vistor Center Rainforest Walk.  We saw Pencil Pine Falls on this walk.

We were ready to get out of the rain at this point so we went to the Cradle Mountain Chateau Wilderness Gallery.  There were several galleries of photographs either by Australian photographers or of Australian places.  Afterwards we had a great lunch at the Quoll Restaurant nearby.  We went on one more short walk to Pencil Pine and Knyvet Falls.


Look at this poor wet pademelon we saw at the beginning of the walk with his spiky fur.



I also wanted to tell you about the place we stayed, Cradle Mountain Lodge.  The accommodations were cabins spread throughout the grounds.  Ours was quite large with a small kitchen area, a balcony, and a wood burning fire place with two arm chairs in front of it.  The weather was a little warm for a fire but it felt good to come back and get warm after being out in the rain and Ben built us some good fires.  The grounds were great for walking around and we would walk to the lodge out front for our meals.  A breakfast buffet was included in the room rate and we ate dinner twice at the tavern and once at the Highland Restaurant which was a little pricey but the food was delicious and it was a fine dining experience.  There were all sorts of guided hikes, a wildlife spotting night tour, and a canoe trip for an extra cost.  We didn't participate in any of them but it was nice that it was offered.