Cradle Mountain 25/26

Zali had organised a pretty extensive smorgasbord of activities that had a good balance of arts & games,  five-sies, hikes and of course the feature paddle boarding.  

Once we got there we also discovered that as we were staying inside the park we could drive down to the new Dove Lake visitor shelter once the shuttles stopped working at 7pm,  whereupon we pretty much had the whole place to ourselves. 

We took advantage of this a few times and drove down to the lake a few mornings to run a lap of the lake and had an amazing evening boiling water with the EV and having hot chocolates and birthday cake while watching the sun set and the local wombat feasting on every newly planted shrub right outside the massive windows.

The evening we chose for the paddle boarding was pretty perfect with hardly any wind and still some sun on the lake.  Unfortunately the one paddle board we chose to bring with us (as the 2nd one wouldn't fit in the car) turned out to have a hole in it - so although the photos make it look idyllic, the person on the back of the board was pressing their thumb against the hole as hard as possible to stop the air blasting out! It wasn't quite the relaxing experience we had hoped for but it was still fun, and almost all of us had a go. Next time we'll take both boards and some repair kit! 

All up it was a fantastic trip, we couldn't have asked for better weather or company, and we'll be planning a repeat visit soon.