• Adventuring Down Under
    Our first up close sighting of a wombat ... munching by the Tavern — Cradle Park Lodge, TAS.
    At the trailhead for the Enchanted Walk — CMNP, TAS.Enchanted Walk — CMNP, TAS.Enchanted Walk — CMNP, TAS.Mui looking for platypus in the creek ... Enchanted Walk — CMNP, TAS.Cataract on Pencil Pine Creek ... Enchanted Walk — CMNP, TAS.Kookaburra ... Enchanted Walk — CMNP, TAS.One of the hides on the trail designed for kids ... Enchanted Walk — CMNP, TAS.Enchanted Walk — CMNP, TAS.Knyvet Falls — CMNP, TAS.Knyvet Falls — CMNP, TAS.Model of CMNP showing the elevations in the park ... at the Interpretive Center."The Magic Tree" ... King Billy Forest at Cradle Mountain ... by C. Walsh — at the Interpretive Ctr.Black Currawong ... once known as crow-shrikes ... native to Australia ... not related to crows.Pencil Pine Falls ... Rainforest Trail — CMNP, TAS.Pencil Pine Falls ... Rainforest Trail — CMNP, TAS.Second wombat of the day — Cradle Mountain Lodge, TAS.Like a lawn mower, the wombat is clipping away the grass — Peppers Cradle Mountain Lodge, TAS.This one falls into the "find the wombat" category ... from our deck with no zoom!

    CMNP: Around the Lodge

    February 3, 2024 in Australia ⋅ ☀️ 59 °F

    It was a wombat kind of day @ Peppers Cradle Mountain Lodge! Saw three of them around the grounds today! Two of them cooperated for close-ups!

    We’re supposed to be taking it easy here, so we reserved breakfast — included in the room rate — for 8:00a. A lazy but good start to what turned out to be a comfortably warm, mostly-wind-free, blue-sky day at CMNP. Even the driver of the shuttle we took into the park later remarked on what an unusual day this was. Hey, after the cold and windy welcome we got yesterday, we deserve it!

    In keeping with our “take it easy plan” we were going to stay close to the lodge today. We jiggled things a bit, but mostly abided by that plan. That’s not to say we sat around and did nothing. No, there are several walking trails — more than a stroll, but not in the hiking category — that can be accessed from the lodge. We picked the one with a “Tasmania’s 60 Great Short Walks” designation sign at the trailhead.

    The “Enchanted Walk” is basically an easy boardwalk trail … a circuit of about .7 mile. It follows the Pencil Pine Creek through a mossy forest. Wildlife abounds along the trail we were told. We saw only a kookaburra and a couple of skinks. And lots of “poo evidence” of other critters. Having started around 9:30a, we didn’t expect to see much anyway.

    We also stopped in to check out the Interpretive Center, and I did a short walk to the Pencil Pine Falls to wrap up our walks in the immediate area.

    Somewhere in between all this, was the jiggle that took us to Dove Lake. But I’ll leave that for the next footprint.    Read more