Since we really wanted to drive into the park, rather than take the shuttle bus, we were motivated to get out early. Happily, we were successful. Our first priority was the walk around Dove Lake, which is designated as one of the 60 Great Short Walks of Tasmania. I’m not sure what they consider short, but it took us 3 hours. It was only 6 Km, but Nola insisted on doing a good bit of it herself, which didn’t allow for a record pace.
It started and ended pretty gently, but there were some steep bits in the middle. Nola rode in a carrier on her mom’s back for about half the distance and managed to sleep for the last 30 minutes. The weather wasn’t perfect, as it was still misting off and on, but it did clear enough for us to get a few glimpses of Cradle Mountain. We also saw three rainbows.
We were all pretty wiped out after that, so we took a two hour break to rest and have lunch in each of our cabins. On the way there we spotted an echidna next to the reception area. But that was just the start of our wildlife encounters for the day. Our afternoon outing was on a boardwalk near a creek and we saw several wombats from a distance. We had a bit of debate about doing the whole walk or returning to the car after 15 minutes. It was a good thing we did turn back because on the way we saw something that was the highlight of our whole trip – a mother wombat and her baby trundling towards us.
We all went still and silent. Wombats don’t see well, but they have great hearing and sense of smell and they are sensitive to vibrations. The only other people nearby were an older English couple and they had the good sense to follow our lead. We all stood quietly in awe as the mother and baby ambled under the boardwalk at my husband’s feet. He could have reached down and touched them. I took dozens of photos, hopefully some of them are good. I am kicking myself for not taking a video and for not taking a photo that showed how close they passed to us. But you can’t have it all.
After that awe-inspiring moment, we did one more short walk that was tailored for children. It was the Enchanted Walk and it lived up to the name. We saw a half dozen pademelons, which is a smaller, cuter cousin to the kangaroo. As one final treat, we saw another wombat crossing the parking lot on our way back to the car. Truly a magical day.