Another big sleep in and we were on the road at 9:00am. Heading into Zeehan we stopped at the Heritage Mining Museum. This was a very good display of the history of Zeehan and its surrounds in its mining heyday. Back on the road and the naviguessor got it wrong!!
We realised we were on the wrong road after about 5 mins, turned around and back to Zeehan to start again. On the right road and off the Cradle Mountain via Rosebery. Stopped at Rosebery for Devonshire teas (Yum) Rosebery and its surrounds is a tin mine and at one time was the largest tin mine in the world. There are mine tours that go every day at 12:30. The lady at Rosebery said we might see snow at Cradle Mountain so off we went.
The road inside the Cradle Mountain National Park was, in a word, HORRIBLE. 7.5kms of narrow, windy and just plain scary. The surface was good, kind of a well-packed, smooth gravel. We supposed that this was to stop cars slipping in the snow and ice. For the most part, the road was 1½ lanes wide, so if another car came you both slowed right down and pulled over to the left.
We got to Cradle Mountain at about 1:00 and there was no snow :(. We had a very good view of the mountain and Dove Lake. There was a little bit of cloud over the summit but generally, it could not have been better. We really were lucky. We did two 600m walks to see the mountain. Around the left side of Dove Lake, the path goes to Glacier Rock. A lady we were talking to, said she had been here 5 times and this was by far the best day she had seen. The right side of the lake takes you to the boat shed and another good view of the mountain and the lake. (This is the most common postcard view). The walk to Glacier Rock was quite cold as there was a good stiff breeze blowing. We needed our gloves, scarf and beanie, but then had to take it all off for the Boatshed walk as it was much more protected and out of the wind.
After Cradle Mountain, we headed further north to Wynyard. (Arrived Wynyard at about 4:00pm) This took us through varied countryside, finally opening up to the rolling fields behind Wynyard. Wynyard is a coastal town and their motto is “where the green meets the blue” and this is exactly what it does. Farmland where we saw cattle, sheep and pigs only about 10kms from the ocean. The beach at Wynyard is a nice beach but had a fair bit of weed washed up on it.
We found a Woolworths, bought some shopping and booked into Leisureville Holiday Centre for the night. www.leisureville.com.au
Temps: Zeehan: 10ºc – 7:30am
Cradle Mountain: 10ºc – 1:50pm
Wynyard: 14ºc – 7:30pm
Weather Fine all day with light cloud cover.
Travel Zeehan to Cradle Mountain 108km
Cradle Mountain to Wynyard 130kms
