Katie and I set out to hike the summit of Cradle Mountain Monday morning. However, due to adverse weather, we were strongly advised against it. They say if you can't see it from the bottom, don't do it - it makes an already difficult climb more difficult, it won't be worth the effort, you won't be able to appreciate the view, the weather worsens as you climb, etc. There are sections of the climb that require boulder scaling at full body length which sounded like great fun to me, but given the weather, it was not a wise option. So... our plan was derailed but as suggested, we hiked past Crater Lake to Marions Lookout, past the Wombat Pool and around Dove Lake - still a beautiful hike. There's an 'Overland Track' that takes 6-8 days to cross over a large section of Cradle Mountain National Park. A few of my friends have done it and say it's amazing. We got to do the first little section of it on our hike. As we leap frogged and passed people hauling 20 kgs in their massive backpacks, getting colder and wetter by the second, I reveled in the idea of a hot shower and warm bed to follow my day hike.
We came across several waterfalls.
Here we are walking around Crater Lake on our way up to the lookout. You'll notice I'm bright red and stripped down to only one layer while Katie never removed any of her SIX layers and complained of numb hands. Sometimes a little sweat can be a good thing!
Overlooking Wombat Pool and Dove Lake at a lookout halfway up to Marions Lookout.
I loved this section of the climb which required chains to pull ourselves up the steep boulders.
Here we go leaving Crater Lake behind us.
The weather continued to worsen as we climbed getting colder and wetter and windier with each step.
However, as the weather worsened, the view improved, getting better and better with each glance backwards. Here's a shot of Crater Lake.
We made it! Here's a view of Dove Lake from Marions Lookout. On the left, you can see another mini lake nestled in the mountains - there were a few of these.
Most hikers stopped to inhale a quick lunch from the lookout. I say inhale because this was the worst of the weather - extremely cold, wet, and windy. We tried to stay long enough to adequately appreciate the view despite our discomfort.
Which way from here?!
Our path was quite wet, often feeling as though we were walking through a stream. We jumped along from board to board and mud pile to mud pile. Katie forged the way.
Cradle Mountain is hidden below the cloud in the middle of this picture. You can see the middle of the cradle, but it comes up a bit on the right which was not visible in the fog. The mountain to the right of it was the one we climbed, Marions Lookout.
I just have to brag a bit about my photography skills because this exact shot with the boat shed was hanging on the wall at the lodge where we stayed. It was sunny and you could see Cradle Mountain in their photo, but c'mon, I can't control the weather.
The 6 km walk around Dove Lake was a lot flatter than our hike to Marions Lookout, with about half of it offering these boardwalks for easy walking.
We opted to oppose the foot traffic, going against the more recommended clockwise direction for optimal views. We passed more people this way. Really, it was the social thing to do.
Here's a shot of our bunk, titled 'Crater'. This was my very first hostel experience which Katie denied me since we got lucky and didn't have to share our room with anyone else.
The communal kitchen was adjacent to our room. After a hot shower, we made pasta for dinner and met a cute couple from Switzerland travelling around the world for a year, along with about 20 others on an older tour. I was so impressed with the number of noticeably old people hiking.
