Cradle Mountain

We said goodbye to Strahan for another cross-country journey – this time heading to Longford, near Launceston, for a two-day stay in a cottage on the Woolmers Estate. On the way, we headed up to Cradle Mountain to take in the sights there.

Cradle Mountain has a number of walks, of varying lengths and difficulties. Some folk go camping and hiking for days from there. As the name implies, it’s up a mountain, and the temperature was noticeably cooler when we parked the car. We took the shuttle bus to the first stop, and from there were about to embark on the walk to Knyvet Falls, when someone told us that there was a snake 100m up the track on the Enchanted Walk, so we took that instead. We didn’t spot the snake, though, probably because we were overtaken along the route by a gaggle of teenagers, which any self-respecting snake would have avoided. We kept our eyes and ears open, but, apart from some distant birdsong, there wasn’t much to be seen. It wasn’t until we reached the end and were heading back to the road that we found a wombat, just wandering through the seats and benches at the Peppers resort.

Wombat

We then located the Knyvet Falls track, and went back to plan A. Right at the beginning, Nicola spotted a flame robin, but by the time I’d located it and pointed my camera it had gone. We continued to hear their calls but none came low enough to see, let alone photograph. We reached the Pencil Pine Falls, and then the Knyvet Falls, which unfortunately aren’t really visible from the track. We headed on a bit further in the hopes of being able to see the falls, but to no avail. What we did come across, however, was a pademelon, just by the side of the track, so it was worth the effort of going on a bit further.

 

Pencil Pine Falls

Knyvet Falls

Pademelon

Just as we were heading for the bus back to the Visitor Centre, a lorry load of contractors arrived and started blocking off the road. We got to the bus stop, boarded, and the driver drove off…for about 100m before he had to stop. The road was completely blocked, and the contractors were busy resurfacing a section of the road! After a bit of toing and froing on the radio, and talking to the chief contractor, who told the driver he was going to be there for 30 or 40 minutes minimum, we all got off the bus, walked 100m past where they were working, and boarded another bus on the other side. Phew! We were able to get back to the VC and went to the café for a quick lunch.

We then hit the road again, and eventually reached our cottage in late afternoon. We located the key from the locked box, figured out how to get to the cottage, and got inside. So far, so good. It’s one of a number of cottages available for rent on the site, the rest of which are all grouped together a little further down the road. We’re in the Gardener’s Cottage, and, being separate from the rest, it appears we have no internet coverage here. We went down to the other cottages and were able to pick up the wi-fi there, so we’ll investigate in the morning once there’s someone to ask about this. Otherwise we’ll just have to keep whizzing down there every time we want to get online.    

The other feature of the cottage is that there’s no breakfast provided, so we headed into Longford, found an IGA, and picked up enough supplies for the next two days.

In the evening, we’d booked a restaurant in Launceston. This is about a 25 minute drive from the cottage, and we weren’t sure of parking, so we set out early. Just as well we did, as we missed the turn-off into the restaurant car park, and had to find a way to turn around to get back. We made it, and were still 10 minutes early. The restaurant, Stillwater, is in fact one of the best in the city, and we had oysters (natch!), tiger prawn dumplings, wallaby and lamb rump, followed by caramelised honey parfait.

Now we’re back at the cottage, I’ve no idea when I’m actually going to post this.