Cradle Mountain

Back on Tassie, Cindy and I visited Cradle Mountain-Lake St Clair NP.  It's one of the few alpine areas in Australia, sculpted by Ice Age glaciers and still buffeted by frequent winter snows.  Here's a waterfall right near the visitor center.

Dove Lake, with Cradle Mountain in the background.

A nearby alpine lake, forged by glaciers.  You can hike for days in the wilderness here.  We opted for day trips, then back to our cozy cabin in the caravan park with a gas stove for cooking and a fridge for the wine.

The spacy eucalypt vegetation adds a surreal touch to the scene.

A massive gum tree...blow the pic up for best effect.

An old boathouse on Dove Lake.  I didn't know it at the time, but this scene is similar to the one on the cover of Lonely Planet's Tasmania guide...which is highly recommended.

An echidna was playing hide and seek.

I can relate to this sign!

We visited a Tasmanian Devil sanctuary.  There is a contagious facial cancer that is killing devils at an alarming rate.  Places like this protect cancer free devils and promote breeding of healthy young'uns.  As can be seen here, the Devils are really sloats...only intermittently fierce.

A Devil strikes an pensive pose.

The sanctuary also has quolls, another carnivorous marsupial that is endangered.  This one is quite stylish, don't you think?  Quoll by Dior.

A quoll sloats out on the afternoon sunshine.

A pademelon...common in these parts.  One visited us when we were having happy hour on the verandah.

A fine sunset at Cradle Mountain.  I went outside at 4 AM and there were tons of stars.  The Southern Cross was right overhead and the Milky Way was bright.  In addition to being out bush we were about 3000 feet above sea level and the skies were crystalline.