Cradle Mountain

Suitcase and backpack are almost ready for the 50 minute flight to Melbourne tomorrow. Before I put the netbook in my backpack, I thought that I better write another blog.

Since Cradle Mountain was awesome!!!!!

The drive to Cradle Mountain not so much though. Lots of sharp turns, which usually means (in my case) motion sickness :(. Our tourguide Graeme drove as carefully as he could though. And he stopped several times along the way. One of those stops was Sheffield. A sleepy little town, but it is famous for its murals (on walls, houses). In Sheffield I also, finally, found myself a teaspoon of Tasmania. Apparently, those teaspoons are very hard to come by over here.

Pity that I was having trouble with my motion sickness, otherwise I would have fully enjoyed the very scenic drive from Launceston to Cradle Mountain. As you can probably imagine, I was really happy when we arrived at Cradle Mountain. No steep twists and turns for a couple of hours. At least not in a car :D.

Our tourguide gave us (four people, so a small tour group) two options for exploring the Cradle Mountain area. Option one was a casual walk along Dove Lake. Option two was a challenging climb up to Marion's Lookout. I was all for the challenge, so I choose the climb. And I loved the climb, also because the weather was just so good (no cloud in the sky, which is apparently very unusual for Cradle Mountain). My favorite part of the climb was the last, steepest, bit up to Marion's Lookout. I was very happy to find out that I had no problem at all climbing up there. Apparently I am still in a very good shape, that is good to know :). The views from Marion's Lookout were simply stunning. At Marion's Lookout, we were met by our guide who took us a little further up the hill for even more stunning views. Guide Graeme was great btw, very energetic and full of information. Tours Tasmania is a very good option if any of you ever decide to do a tour here (especially if it's the one to Cradle Mountain).

By then, we were ready to start our descend. Actually found the descend much harder than the ascend. I am a little clumsy and I am happy that I didn't slip :). We still have some time left to do a little walk around Dove Lake, which was nice as well (but it doesn't beat the sensational views you get when you walk up to Marion's Lookout.

Drive back to Launceston was a little uncomfortable, motion sickness again. But I managed to fall asleep during the trip back, so I missed a couple of the most naucious-making turns. But I did see a wombat, yay!!!

I had a light dinner back at the hostel. This hostel was another good choice, friendly staff. One of them is actually a Flamish guy (good to practice my Dutch a bit lol). The other is a wildlife carer, she was carrying a three months old little Joey in her sweater to keep him warm (I was actually able to hold that Joey for a couple of minutes, so cute). The hostel is old, but in pretty good condition and ideally located, close to the supermarket and the waterfront for example.

It is bedtime. Rather early day tomorrow. But this also means that I will be in Melbourne a little before (or after) midday. Plenty of time to go running along the Yarra River then :). And at night another huge musical treat with Placido Domingo and Katherine Jenkins in concert at the Rod Laver Arena :P.