Our Great Adventure: Gowrie Park Day 131 27/01/2015

It was very cold again overnight but we woke to lovely sunny skies. We decided to head up to the National Park, walk up Cradle Mountain and then head down the valley in our van to stay overnight (where hopefully it would be warmer!). Cradle Mountain is apparently the most photographed peak in Tasmania with it's highest point at 1545m. It's a high narrow ridge with dolerite cliffs on both sides. There are multiple summits and all have names. The most southern of these is the highest and is the peak called Cradle Mountain. The weather here is notoriously bad. It rains on 7 out of 10 days, cloudy on 8 out of 10, the sun shines all day in 1 out of 10 and it snows on 54 days each year. We packed up and got the shuttle bus to the start of the walk at Dove Lake. The route initially goes passed Lake Lilla before heading up uphill to Wombat Pool and then onto Marion's Lookout where we'd been yesterday. On the way we got chatting to Tasmanian guy who's brother lived in Peebles and two guys from Ireland, who had just climbed Mt Kimbula in Borneo which is one of the seven world's summits. We continued north to where a side path heads off to reach the summit. The path is steep and heads initially towards Smithies Peak before veering off right. Three people in front of us headed straight up. We weren't sure if it was intentional or not and there were too far in front to shout to them. From here the route goes up over huge boulders, involving loads of scrambling, crossing the ridge top before descending into a saddle and a final scramble up to the summit tower. There was only one guy on summit when we arrived (although not for long as many other people we passed on the way up summited). The summit provides wonderful views with a plaque helping to identify the surrounding mountains. We enjoyed our lunch in lovely sunshine really drinking in the fantastic 360 panorama, before setting off back down over the boulders. Continuing round in a circuit we headed south west across the plateau and then descended through alpine vegetation passing Lake Wilks. The path climbs to Hanson's Peak from where you get great views of Dove Lake, Twisted Lakes and Lake Hanson. From here it's a very steep descent (there are chains for protection) and a stroll along the main track back to the car park were we'd started from earlier in the day. We got the shuttle bus back to the visitors centre and treated ourselves to ice creams before heading off down the road to Gowrie Park where we planned to stay for the night. As we drove along we didn't appear to be losing any height and we started to wonder if it was going to be any warmer. Eventually the road descended and we dropped to just over 200m. After checking in at the campsite we sat outside, enjoyed a well deserved beer and planned what to do tomorrow. Unfortunately it wasn't warm enough for dinner outside but it was certainly much warmer in the van than on previous nights and the sunset was very atmospheric with fiery skies mingled in with the clouds.