Spent the whole day in the park and did not use the car at all. Walked from the cabin down to the Visitor’s Centre where we bought a park day pass A$16.50/adult, which included the hop on/hop off park shuttle bus. The number of cars allowed into the park is restricted because of the narrow and winding road and to protect the fragile environment. Shuttle buses provide transport on the 6.5km road up to Dove Lake, with four intermediate stops. Up to 15 buses can be operating at one time in busy periods.
The park has impressive sculptured land forms that were made by recent glaciers about 500 years ago. There is an abundance of glacial features -rugged peaks, rounded land forms, glacial lakes, tarns, cirques, U shaped valleys and moraine. Down near the park entrance there is forest with King Billy pine, pencil pine, celery top pine and an undergrowth of flowering shrubs and bright berries. Further up there is open moorland with sphagnum and bottle grass. The bottle grass gives a distinctive golden glow to the landscape. Higher still there are alpine forests of Fagas (deciduous beech) and Myrtle beech with herb fields, delicate daisies and cushion plants.
We took the shuttle to Dove Lake and walked the 6km circuit. There was still a lot of smoke in the air so everything looks as if it is in a dirty haze. The walk is fabulous, mostly flat with only a couple of small climbs over headlands. They try and get everyone walking in the same direction so you don’t meet people coming toward you. The path is narrow so continual passing is a hassle. Mostly close to the water with changing views of the mountains and out over the lake. 80% of the path is on timber boardwalk. You also have to sign in and out so that nobody is left out in what could be a very harsh environment.
From Dove Lake we hopped on the bus down to Ronny Creek. There did a 2km each way walk, again on boardwalk up to Waldheim Chalet. In 1912 Gustav and Kate Wieindorfer built a rustic 3 room home and guesthouse here after falling in love with what is now Cradle Mountain – Lake St Clair National Park. The chalet was named Waldheim meaning forest home in German. Gustav and Kate encouraged visitors to their remote guesthouse to share in the marvels of Cradle Mountain. In 1922 64,000 hectares were gazetted as a scenic reserve, and by the eighties the unique value of the area was recognised with proclamation by UNESCO of the Tasmanian Wilderness World Heritage Area. It is now 1.4million hectares. The chalet was used for accommodation until 1974 when it was severely damaged by fire. The present building is a replica from 1974 using traditional bush carpentry techniques of split timber slabs and shingles from King Billy pin.
The it was back on the shuttle to the interpretive centre which frankly is looking tired and dated but is packed with information. Here we did the Pencil Falls Walk and the Enchanted Walk, both of which we did last time. For some reason we decided to walk from there back to the Visitor’s Centre but it was hot and tedious and had to walk on the edge of the road as there was no path. It should have been 2km but seemed to go forever. At the Centre we were a bit frazzled so had the worst coffee so far but the best muffins as they were from a refrigerated cabinet and were cool and moist.
Last night in the kitchen there was also a large group of noisy but friendly asians from Melbourne, doing a huge meal of vegetables and rice. One of the ladies had bailed up one of the cleaning staff and tonight we had a new set of 6 pans all with lids and handles!