Blogs from Cradle Mountain, Tasmania, Australia, Oceania - page 2

Apparently Friday 31 July saw a rare blue moon in our skies. Was this the reason for the rare chain of events that followed for me that weekend? It was a long weekend, so of course I had taken the opportunity to get out of town. I had booked a weekend in Tasmania, specifically at Cradle Mountain Lodge, about a 2-hour drive from Launceston and handily located at the entrance to the Cradle Mountain National Park. The weather conditions there are famously unpredictable, and I was a bit worried about snow and whether or not I would be able to get there. I had emailed the lodge in advance to ask if I needed chains, and they responded that the lodge is at 820m so there isn't a lot of snow, and if it did snow ... read more

WILD TASMANIA...Cradle Mountain N.P...just bloody minded some may say. I have always been determined...willing to go the extra mile...to pursue a crusade to obtain justice...able to overcome...to win against the odds...just bloody minded some may say. Full of confidence...self belief...yeh...I can do that...anything I set my mind to. All said one needs the body to be willing...mind power is never enough. Our Cradle Mountain experiences started out cruisy...talk about well catered for visitors...but when I went past a sign "CAUTION...Track Not Maintained"...needed all my powers of endurance and determination to get through it. There was climbing a cliff cause I had to...stopping in a forest catching my breath...puffing like there was no tomorrow...wiping the sweat incessantly out of my stinging eyes...muttering "You can do this...you kinda have to...what would Denise think?... read more

We were woken this morning with a PA announcement at 5.05am so that we would be ready to disembark when we arrived in Davenport 40 minutes later! The biggest problem that we had all night was that the cabin was HOT, very, very hot! The crossing was as smooth as silk so there were no problems with nearly being tossed out of our bunks or anything like that, but we were awake a couple of times overnight throwing bed clothes off because it was so hot and we couldn't find a thermostat to turn the temperature down. We showered and dressed and we were ready to head down to the vehicle decks when they asked for passengers parked on levels three and five. Bernie was sure that the CX-5 was parked on level five so off ... read more

It doesn't matter who you ask about travel in Tasmania, Cradle Mountain is one of the first things listed. Funny, it has ended up being one of the last things visited on our tour of Tasmania. That has been dictated by weather as it was originally our plan to do the west cost and Cradle Mountain first, but severe storms and wind sent us the other way around the Island. I guess when planning the tour we were always aware that the weather is changeable down here, but hoped for generally good weather for February and March. So if you are planning a visit, plan to be flexible! We had purchased the National Parks Pass for our holiday duration which includes not only access to Cradle Mountain, but free use of the shuttle bus for the ... read more

We left the peacocks and the chickens, the possums and the hand-fed wallabies of Bicheno and began our drive towards Cradle Mountain, in the western part of Tasmania, stopping along the way in Deloraine. It was Tuesday, November 6, Cup Day in Melbourne and in the small town of Deloraine, the Deloraine Hotel was doing brisk business as people in their racing attire (ie, women with fabulous hats) arrived to watch the race on the telly. We found a quieter hotel, up the road from the downtown area to have our lunch. Entering, it looked for all the world like that kind of place that should be serving beef pie or fish and chips; it turned out to be a Thai restaurant with curries and noodles instead. From Deloraine, we continued west heading for the small ... read more