Back into the wilderness

After 2 short days of unpacking, washing, shopping, packing  then shopping a few more times, the whole famiily was off to Cradle Mountain - to get Jon to the start of his Overland Track run, and for us to have a few days around Cradle before driving to Lake St Clair to meet him at the finish.

We left on Wednesday morning, so Jon and I had time to run the Boardwalk in the afternoon we arrived. I rave about the boardwalk every time I go to Cradle, and it's fully justified because it's awesome. We weren't in any rush so we explored around the cabins at Romy Creek and we took a closer look at Dove River.  Turns out we need to find a way to join the Blandfjordia Alphine Club so we can stay in their cool private hut that was bequethed to them in the 60s on the proviso that they 'feed the possums'!  We couldn't get close enough to get any good photos but we took some of Mount Kate Hut, the poorer cousin of a hut which was built by the same person, but is now owned by The Parks and Wildlife people.

Aside from a few dry hours in the evenings, the weather was generally pretty awful - we woke on Thursday morning to rainy shoals sweeping across the plains near the Waldheim cabins so we had to cancel our planned Cradle Mountain Summit trip, but it was still managed to the kids out for a walk to Dove lake then around it.   We got to wear all the rain gear that we didn't use at all on our overland track trek that we were doing almost this time last year. 

We saw a few miserable looking overland hikers setting off on the overland track, with trousers soaked through after 5 minutes of walking - hopefully the weather will clear for them in a day or two's time.   And also for Paul (below right), who was setting off with two of his friends on Friday. 

Despite the weather, the Dove Lake circuit was really pretty - it's easier to enjoy it in appropriate clothing that's for sure - we passed a lot of miserable looking garbage-bag-wearing-tourists who won't be raving about their wilderness experience I'm sure.

After our Dove Lake walk, we returned to the cabin to have lunch and recover.   In the afternoon the weather cleared again so I headed out onto the boardwalk for a few hours.  Have I mentioned how much I like the boardwalk?

All in all it was a fun few days of dodgy weather and cosy cabin living without internet or tv, so we played games and ate chocolate and had a nice time.  On Friday morning Paul and his friends set off (unfortunately with equally crappy weather as the previous morning):

(Don't be fooled by the sunglasses two of them are wearing, they are just so old they have to wear their prescription (sun)glasses in order to see anything. )

And we left Jon at Cradle Mountain Lodge where he was going to relax until the race briefing in the evening.  The race started at 6am on Saturday, so as I write this, he's almost 6 hours into it - hopefully he's well past half way and still feeling fine. Go Jon!