A Couple of Weeks to Go

Daylight Saving hours have finished and we are on the road to Stanley but first we have a stop at Smithton.  Nothing much going on here on a Sunday but wait...a set of traffic lights in town and we happen to drive through the yellow light (we are such dare devils).  We did drive to Tier Hill Scenic Lookout and took in the view of the north west coastline.

20 minutes later and we are in Stanley, It doesn't matter where you go in Stanley you can see "The Nut".  For those of you who don't know, The Nut is a volcanic plug, in other words it is a huge rock on the edge of the sea.

We found a free camp at the base of The Nut on the pier side and it was blowing a gale so we unhooked the van and went to look at the shops in town and had lunch, looked at Highfield  House (built in the 1800's),

looked at the cute historical homes and that was Stanley done.  The only thing left was to get to the top of The Nut, we could go two ways...by chairlift or walk and seems it was 5pm and the chairlift was closed for the day off we go on our trusty two feet.  This is no easy feat, the walk is a zig zag path almost straight up.
It didn't take us too long and we were at the top (with a few rest stops on the way) then we did a 2km walk around the top of the Nut with viewing platforms to get the views of Stanley,

on top of the Nut

The Tvan is near the bitumen in  the middle of the pic

the animals came out to feed at that time of the day and we got to see a beautiful sunset to finish of our day of sightseeing.

Then came the walk down and we still hadn't set up the van.  Thank goodness the wind had died down by now and we had a cuppa and a snack and into bed.
The next morning the plan was to get up, pack up and be on our way but we decided to take a walk along the pier and  see what sort of fish were being caught and we met Joan and Dudley from Smithton, two of the nicest people we have met on the trip and we sat and chatted with them for a couple of hours and the whole time they were pulling in Spanish mackerel using chicken breast meat for bait. We ended up with 4 fresh fillets to have for dinner that night.
Other places on the coast we dropped in to have a look were:  Sister's Beach, Boat Harbour Beach, Table Cape and the lighthouse (their is a tulip farm here but no flowers blooming this time of the year).  Next was Wynyard for fuel and food, a rest stop at Hellyer Gorge and we decided to stop overnight at Fossey River Rest Stop. We had such a heavy dew that night it dripped through the canvas so we were a bit wet packing up.  We were woken up early by a couple who pulled up and turned their generator on at 7am and we weren't very impressed so after I had words with him we just packed up and drove off.  We drove back to the town of Waratah and had a look around, that took us all of about 30minutes and we were off to Cradle Mountain NP. 
Seems it is still school holidays for the mainlanders we could only get an unpowered site for a couple of days and after having some lunch we were on our way for our first walk...Dove Lake circuit...took us about 2 hrs and it was a beautiful day for walking.

Cradle Mountain

Dove Lake

Dove Lake with Marion's Lookout in the background-highest bump on the right

Back on the shuttle bus and on the side of the road back to the caravan park we saw 3 big fat wombats feeding and back at camp we had the pademelons and possums coming into our site to visit.
The weather is supposed to be changing and not for the better so Wednesday we get up early for our next challenge...Marion's Lookout.  We start our walk at 9.15am and it is cold and windy with showers predicted.  There were plenty of others on the same track and as usual we let them pass.  We walk on around Lilla Lake, Wombat Pool and up to Crater Lake.

Marion's Lookout to the left

Crater Lake

walkers ahead of us

rock scrambling

the view at the top overlooking Dove Lake

It is getting very windy and very cold and the walk becomes a climb of hands and feet and a bit of rock scrambling but we make it to the top of 1224m and take in the views.  After a snack and a rest the rain starts to fall so we put on our rain coats and head on to another track

us with Cradle Mtn in the background

but we changed our minds because of the weather, back we go the same way we came up almost...there is a short cut down the mountain...the sign says rocky and steep???  Lets do it says Andy and gets Steve to lead the way.  The first half of the track was all rocks with a chain to hold on to and Andy found it easier to go down backwards

at least we were out of the blustering winds but with all our jumpers and rain gear on it was now getting quite warm.  The second half of the track was narrow and through vegetation and high steps and we joined up to the Dove Lake circuit and made it back half an hour quicker than the ascent. 
Back on the Shuttle Bus and we stopped at the Rangers Station to have a look at the information and then down the road a bit to a little 20min walk along the creek and the cascade falls

to stretch our legs from our climb today and instead of walking back up the hill (3mins) to the rangers station to catch the shuttle bus we decide to walk back to the caravan park (40mins and slightly up hill).  We have already been told on this trip we are mad and I'm starting to think we are, we should have caught the bus!!!