The Phoenix Tour

Apologies for the break in transmission.
Spent last night in a very cool old Inn, in the middle of nowhere. Lake Leake Inn. Over 140 years old, a few kilometres along a good dirt road. Nestled on the bush with shingled walls and Old world charm.
But no internet..

And paper thin walls. Not the best night’s sleep of the trip. The locals had a big one (although, I suspect most nights are big nights at this place)

Arrived to see a group of motorcycles in the car park (the first I’ve seen, all trip). They were part of a leisure riders group and were just finishing a weekend ride. Had a quick chat and they were off home to Devonport.

Before all this, Saturday’s plan was to do Cradle Mountain. I woke up to a grey and gloomy day. Looking out of the window,  all I could see were dark, heavy clouds, completely shrouding the mountains like a cloak of invisibility…
I decided a change of plan was in order. So, I walked into town, bought food for lunch and dinner and walked back. Spent the rest of the day reading, tucked away against the wind, in my pretty little apartment.
As it turned out, it was a great decision.

Woke up yesterday to a bright blue sky, cheerful sun and gentle breeze.
Rode through some beautiful countryside, into the hills up to Cradle Mountain visitors centre.
I got there early and there was a handful of cars in the car park.
Straight onto a Shuttle bus to head up to Dove Lake.
This is another place that warrants more than one day. So many different walks to choose from.
I did the Dove Lake Circuit walk. About a 2.5-3  hour walk. My toxic trait is that I see the time on a sign and my brain seems to take it as a challenge… 2.5 hours? I can do it under 2. Who am I in competition with? A sign?
I need to stop that.
I did do it in under 2 but I did make sure to stop often and take a lot of photos.

Dove Lake is truly magnificent. Created by glaciers. Over time, constant movement of huge glaciers created a hollow which filled with water to become Dove Lake.

Looking across the lake up to Cradle Mountain is spectacular.  The colours of the water, the coral fern, button grass and wildflowers, the rich brown and greys of the delorite rock.

Every 5 minutes is yet another photo opportunity. I took hundreds of photos.

And walked up hundreds of stairs.
My phone tells me I did 18,000 steps.

I stopped at the Ranger Interpretation centre on the way back down to do The Enchanted Walk. This is one of Tasmania’s 60 great short walks.
A ethereal walk next to a crystal clear river, interspersed with tumbling waterfalls.

I spent time straining my eyes trying to spot platypus.
It was easy to forget time, standing there with just the sound of the burbling water and birdsong. I didn’t come across another human the whole walk.
Saw lots of evidence of wombats, square poop and burrows but no actual wombats graced me with their presence.

I asked the shuttle driver as i got off, how far it was from the Interpretation centre to the visitors centre. She said she “thinks its about 2 kms”. So, I figured I may as well walk back instead of waiting for the next shuttle. I don’t think it was 2 kms…..
About 3-4 kms later, I arrived back at the visitors centre. Added another bunch of steps to my count…

The only drawback to my plan change was that it meant adding an extra 130ks onto my days ride, with the last few on dirt. So I hit the road.
Made good time though, with 110 km/hr roads most of the way.