Lake Dove Walk, Cradle Mountain National Park - May 2007

I bet you've never seen this shot!

Due to the magic of that inter-web thingy, by the time you see this post we should be walking our way across the Scottish highlands. Looking for something to write about so that I would have something to post in my absence I came across some photo's I'd taken way back in 2007, now it wasn't the age of the photo's that appealed to me but it was the fact that the walk was in Tasmania. Tassie seems to be very under represented on my blog, shit I've got more posts about New Zealand or Peru at present than I do about Tasmania. As far as I'm concerned Tasmania is 'the duck's guts' when it comes to bushwalking in Australia, the little island is as close as we get in Australia to a walkers paradise. I've done more than my share of walking down there over the years but a lot of my trips were pre digital camera's so the photo's, when I can actually find them, aren't that great. So finding these shots on a CD languishing at the bottom of a draw full off assorted crap I thought I'd rescue them and at the same time do a quick post on one of the easiest and most scenic walks in the country.

There's a reason you've seen this shot before and that's because it drop dead gorgeous, the golden brown on the flanks of Cradle Mountain is the fagus.

I started this walk at my normal time, that is around three hours later than I should of. Stopping to get the money shot of Cradle Mountain towering over Dove Lake and its much photographed boat shed, I did remember thinking that setting off at 4 in the afternoon in late Autumn was cutting it pretty fine in the daylight stakes, although I wasn't overly concerned as the lakeside track is very easy and I figured that I might get some sunset shots. The track occasionally breaks out onto little beaches, the crystal clear waters of the lake tempting you to dip a toe, or maybe throw off your clothes and jump in (er..maybe that's just me).

Another pristine little beach.

Climbing up the only moderately challenging section of the whole walk.

After a bit of lakeside walking the track comes to the only bit of climbing on the whole walk, climbing over a promontory protruding into the lake below Marions Lookout. The section of track that climbs over this small spur was the roughest on the whole walk, although I use the term 'rough' relatively as its still a very well engineered track. The top of this little rise gave me a nice view of The Honeymoon Islands in Dove Lake with Little Horn towering above in the clear blue sky. Dropping down the far side of the spur I was in the magical Ballroom Forest, a beautiful section of track that passes through a primordial Beech Forest, I'm not sure why but it doesn't appear as though I took any photo's in here, I guess I'll have to go back! 

The Honeymoon Islands.

With Little Horn towering above.

Marions Lookout.

The track now reaches a cantilevered section of boardwalk that is screwed into the shear cliffs, apart from the stunning views of Dove Lake, now almost directly underneath, the other interesting thing on this section was getting close to the fagus, its leaves turning a gold colour in the late Autumn. The fagus certainly added a lot of colour to the million shades of green of the surrounding trees. 

A closer shot of the fagus taken from the boardwalk attached to the rock.

Yeah, I liked it so much why stop at one shot.

Little Horn and Weidorfers Tower taken from near where The Face Track  meets The Dove Lake Track.

Passing the Lake Wilks Track plunging down from the towering bluffs of Weindorfers Tower above I'd officially turned the corner and was now heading back towards the car. It was now starting to get a little dark as the sun went down behind The Cradle Plateau on the other side of the Dove Lake, so as I made the very short climb up to Glacier Rock I turned to get a couple more shots of Cradle Mountain still lit up by the late afternoon sun with Dove Lake shaded by The Cradle Plateau. After checking out Glacier Rock the track once again returns to the lakeside again, giving me one final opportunity to take another sunset shot before arriving back at the car and heading to the pub, a perfect end to a beautiful walk.

Late afternoon on the short climb to Glacier Rock, this shot featuring a hand rail!

A few metres further on, this one featuring the walking track!

The Dirt.

I walked around 5.5 kilometres on this ramble with around 110 metres of climbing. Like I said earlier this is one of the finest easy day walks in Australia in my opinion, and it can be done by almost anyone as there is very little climbing and the track is extremely well engineered. My photo's don't really do it justice, at the time I did this walk I probably didn't even know what a blog was, let alone was considering doing one. I think I just used the Cradle Mountain Walks map, all the tracks are well signposted so you would be really struggling to get lost on this stroll. As far as walk notes go both Tyrone Thomas and John Chapman have written up this walk.

Finally the last one, this one with no crap in the foreground, yay!