63 and free

To date all of our hikes in Tazzie have been of the urban variety. Given that we are at the edge of “Cradle Mountain – Lake St Clair National Park”, it was time to head out.

Following a lazy morning of course. After all, we are OLD. Moving quickly in the morning holds no appeal.

This was a true country breakfast. Everything here is from this, or neighbouring, farms (except for the coffee & tea):

Our cottage is at an elevation of 1258′. After an hour and a half on roads that reminded us of New Zealand, we arrived at the tourist centre, where we bought tickets for the transit bus to take us up to “Ronny Creek” (elevation 2848′). This is the starting point of the hike we did up to “Crater Lake” (elevation ~3280′), before heading up to another peak/pass at 3595′. After doing a Chevy Chase (from “Vacation”…a quick peek), we started down and up and down…etc…before finally ending up at Dove Lake (3081′).

Although the hike was only 5.8 ish kilometres, there was only a brief flat bit at the start. And weather wise, it made us homesick. 😏

On the other hand, the views were okay and the critters were interesting…