Overland Track, Ronny Creek to Waterfall Valley
Trip Start
Jan 19, 2006
1
4
20
Trip End
Feb 23, 2006
Cradle Mountain National Park, Tasmania,
Australia
Sunday, January 22, 2006
Up at 6:30am after about 10 hours of sleep (a bit of jetlag and lack of sleep on the plane). Looked hot outside and indeed it was going to be another warm day! Had a complimentary buffet breakfast at the hotel and were off to the nearby Castle Mountain Info Centre (just outside of the park) where we could leave our car and take a free park shuttle to Ronny Creek where we would start our hike. The trail wandered through open buttongrass to temperate rainforest, on wooden boardwalks sometimes where we would see little geckos (Theo called them "sally's"). The trail rose to Crater Falls and kept ascending to Crater Lake (we were literally pouring sweat by then, it was so damm hot!), and then up to Marions Lookout where we caught some breeze and a view of Dove Lake from above. Some kids saw some snakes at the Lookout (all snakes in Tasmania are venomous although are unlikely able to bite you with enough venom to kill, there is one anti-venom treatment which thankfully means you don't have to identify the snake that bit you) which made us realize that we hadn't been very careful at looking for them ourselves
01) Nadine and Stanwee melting in the heat...
. We continued along Cradle Mountain plateau and approached Cradle Mountain, stopping briefly at Kitchen hut (an old mining hut now only used for emergencies) for a snack. We left our packs at the base of Cradle Mountain and scrambled the dolorite rocks to the summit. Great view at the top and a relief from the heat in the wind! The remainder of our day was through windswept alpine herb fields, with Barn Bluff in the distance. We decided to leave the ascent of Barn Bluff for now, and quickly descended to Waterfall Valley where we would be tenting for the night. To our surprise, there were wallabies around the hut and tenting sites! Apparently wallabies are to Tasmania as squirrels are to Canada! Had a bath in a nearby stream and had a meal of dehydrated soy curry (it really is good!!) before the rain hit, we tried to let the rain wash our dishes but it didn't work too well. We fell asleep with a smile, we were having a blast! 
