Cradle Mountain, Tasmania, Australia
Wednesday, February 12, 2025
Our day began in Launceston, Tasmania at Old Mac’s Caravan and Motorhome Farm Stay. We enjoyed a slower start to our travel day, catching up on blogging and other tasks.
Since we’ve decided to travel to New Zealand and Indonesia in the coming weeks, Andi took time to complete the necessary traveler’s declaration paperwork. What he thought would be a simple 10-minute process ended up taking him two hours to finish for the four of us. Uploading profile pictures with solid white backgrounds, enduring app errors, paying international visitor entrance fees, etc. These are all the “extra” steps of travel life that no one ever talks about. I’m thankful for Andi who takes care of all these details for us.
We said good-bye to the city of Launceston around 11:00am, and drove two hours west to Cradle Mountain National Park. Along the way, we stopped in the town of Elizabeth Town for lunch at Van Diemens Land Creamery. There’s a whole tasting trail map of recommended restaurants, wineries, and distilleries throughout northwest Tasmania; this was one of many locations.
I wasn’t particularly hungry, so Andi and I agreed to split a chicken & brie panini for lunch. Tory wanted a margherita pizza, and Aden had buffalo chicken pizza. For dessert, Andi, Tory, and Aden each enjoyed a dish of Van Diemens Land’s delicious, creamy ice cream.
Things we love about dining out in Australia:
delicious food; usually a focus on supporting local
fill-it-yourself water pitchers for the table
order & pay at the register; then, get up & leave when you’re done eating
no tipping required
Coke products (Pepsi is rarely available)
clean bathrooms with hot water & soap available (seems like a given, but it’s not in most countries)
take-away is available
family-focused; always a children’s menu available
The drive west to Cradle Mountain was beautiful. It reminded Andi and I of home in Wisconsin with farmland as far as the eyes could see, big gardens next to people’s houses, and cows grazing in the pasture. We stopped at a roadside farm stand just outside Cradle Mountain for fresh veggies and homemade treats. The Amish woman working the stand was surprised to hear our American accents in Tasmania. She told us she’d traveled to Pennsylvania a few years ago, and has friends living in Wisconsin. We bought fresh green beans from her, as well as blackberries, homemade peanut butter cookies, and cinnamon rolls.
Hats off to Andi for safely getting us to our destinations each day. Today’s two hour drive wasn’t an easy one through narrow mountain roads.
We arrived to our campsite at Discovery Parks - Cradle Mountain around 2:00pm, and decided shortly after we checked into our site to go for a walk in the national park. Many activities at Cradle Mountain require riding the park’s shuttle service, so we focused on the walks closer to our campsite. The weather was gorgeous today — a perfect 70 degrees and sunny — but a cold front is predicted to move into the area tomorrow bringing rain and cooler temperatures. Andi and I decided we needed to take advantage of the sunshine while we had it.
Our first walk was called the Enchanted Walk, an easy boardwalk that meandered through the mossy forest. This walk is on Tasmania’s list of 60 Great Short Walks, and for good reason. It was an easy trail, family-friendly, and the perfect way to get our legs moving.
At the end of the trail, Tory and Andi suddenly stopped short, causing Aden and I to bump into their backs. What in the world? “I wasn’t going to say anything to see if you noticed,” Tory said to Andi with a sly smile, “but I thought you might like to know there’s a snake there.” Andi does not like snakes.
Turns out, it was a highly venomous tiger snake! A few more walkers gathered around us by this point to see the snake for themselves. Later, someone told us that tiger snakes are one of the Top 5 deadliest snakes in the world.
Next, we bopped into the Interpretation Center to look at the nature displays and watched a few minutes of a video about Cradle Mountain. Excitement from seeing the snake still ran through our veins, so we decided to walk the Rainforest Trail. It left from the back of the Interpretation Center. This was a short walk through Cradle Mountain’s cool temperate forest with informational signage about pencil pines and myrtle trees. At the end, we were rewarded with views of Pencil Pine Falls.
Andi suggested we head back to camp to do laundry and cook dinner. The Discovery Parks campground was set up nicely for the many visitors of Cradle Mountain. Each section had its own camp kitchen outfitted with gas grills and pizza ovens to use, laundry facilities, toilets, and showers. Andi and I started two loads of laundry and then walked around camp while we waited for the washing machines to finish.
For dinner, Andi and Aden grilled chicken kebobs, and I steamed green beans on the RV stove-top. Tory and Aden helped prepare the food.
We took showers in the campground bathrooms, then settled in for the night. Tomorrow is my birthday! We’re planning to spend part of the day hiking in Cradle Mountain.
