Cradle Mountain

26 - 28 December 2022

View of Cradle Mountain across Lake Lilla

The roads from Bicheno to Cradle Mountain were twisty and winding like back home in Western North Carolina. Somehow Julie cut an hour off of the initial Waze estimated time to get there.

The Cradle Mountain Resort is nestled 5 minute outside of the Cradle Mountain National Park. We arrived there on Boxing Day, which is apparently a big shopping day in Australia, alas, no places to shop at Cradle Mountain.

We spent all day Tuesday hiking in Cradle Mountain National Park. For our first hike, we started early and got off the bus at the less popular Ronny Creek Trail head, to hike over the ridge. The trail took us past Crater Lake, Wombat Poo(l), Lake Lilla and finally to Dove Lake. The hike was pretty steep, but had incredible scenery. On the initial climb, it took us through a very shady wood with a stream that had several falls.

Crater Lake

Julie and Anthony on the Ridge overlooking Lake Lilla and Wombat Pool

After Lunch (if you can help it NEVER eat in a National Park) we circumnavigated Dove lake. We had numerous views of Cradle Mountain and a wide variety of wild flowers.

The first hike was 3.5 miles, the second was 4!! We were rocking!! and were VERY tired at the end of the day.

Julie on the Boardwalk at Ronny Creek, see any Wombats hiding in the field.

On our Dove Lake hike we heard that Wombats sometimes hung out in the field off of the boardwalk and munch grass. On our way back to the car, we got off at Ronny Creek again and went looking. We saw 8 or 9, and got good pictures of a couple. We also saw an echidna and a wallaby hopping across the road (at a cross walk, no less) sadly no photos.

Julie’s new spirit animal is a wombat. We were in bed by 9:00 pm that night.

Bicheno and Christmas