It was still pretty dark when we arrived. The air was so cold (We found out later, we arrived on the coldest day in Tassie's recent years!) but we were greeted with shooting stars. Lots of them! Anyway, as everything was still shut around town, we drove on and stopped over at Latrobe for a quick breakfast. We discovered Banjos. It's pretty much like some sort of franchise bakery. Fresh breads, pies, tarts. It wasn't fancy, but it sure did do the job of keeping us full, at least till noon. It was also while we at Latrobe, did Darren realise how FREEZINGLY cold it was and that not wearing Thermals weren't an option. Sadly, the IGA nearby didn't stock our sizes!
So after a somewhat full tummy, coffee in hand and our freezing butts, we drove off to Cradle Mountain. We arrived at about 9.30ish and without pondering, I zoomed RIGHT IN to the gift shop and bought myself thermals. Phew! You should have seen me running/skipping/jumping into the shop. It was quite a sight. After arming and zipping ourselves up with approximately 4 layers (For the record, I love the cold, and sometimes wear shorts in Melbourne's Winter), Darren and I hopped onto the shuttle bus and up we went! We got dropped off at Dove Lake carpark. Upon arrival, we were greeted with this magnificent sight.
It was pretty spectacular. Living in Melbourne and having climbed a fair share of mountainy areas, this was just simply breathtaking. Nothing like what we've seen! Moving on, there were a couple of walking routes we could go on. We decided to start off first with a short 10-20 minutes slow walk to 'Glacier Rock'.
As you can tell, Glacier Rock's pretty much a little rock, it's more like a mini cliff, enough to sit about 10? You could dangle your legs on the edge and take in a superb unblocked view of Dove Lake. You wouldn't want to fall though! Darren and I decided to have a little picnic while up on the rock. We were the only ones there at that time. So it was kind of sweet and romantic at the same time. Hehe. We ate banana bread, spotted the boat shed and others walking on the longer tracks, and just chatted in the sun about how amazing it feels to be sitting on the edge of a rock. Scary but fun! 
After fuelling ourselves with yumminess, we went on to tackle the much longer tracks. We decided to walk all the way down from Dove Lake (Where the Glacier Rock was) to the Ranger Station, Point 1 on the map shown below. 
Sadly, due to my state of my shoes, tired feet and icey slippery rocks, I gave up and we only ended up at Waldheim! What a far cry from our original plan! Oops. There were still lots to see along the way though! We spotted a wombat, LOTS of wombat poo (Which by the way is square!) some sort of wildlife which we're still unsure of what it is, colourful birds and lots of interesting flowers and leaves.
We also took lots of shadow photos along the way, stopped over and threw skipping rocks and twigs into frozen lakes, Darren even pretended to be Thor for a moment. 
If you looked at this map here, we basically walked where the Pink lines are, then up to the Overland Track, passing Lake Lilla, Wombat Pool, Crater Lake, Wombat Peak, Crater Falls and finally gave up at Waldheim. I think it took us about 3 1/2 hours in total, Including our little picnic session at Glacier Rock. It was SO hard to walk as my shoes had zero grip. Once again, bad choice of footwear! I'd say please buy proper hiking boots if you're going. Especially in Winter, as the rocks are all icey and it's impossible not to fall over. I did fall. Thanks to my shoes.
Anyway, after giving up at Waldheim, we took the shuttle bus down the mountain and decided to stop at Stop 1(See Map above) We checked out Pencil Pine Forest. Which Darren and I both thought was a bit boring, especially after the magnificent views we took in earlier on. While at Stop 1, we also checked out the much recommended Enchanted Falls. Well, let's just say, it started off boring, but it was not bad towards the end. We spotted a few Wallabies. I thought that was more interesting than the walk itself. The whole time, I kept telling Darren how I felt like we were in a giant terrarium. It was moss here, moss there, moss EVERYWHERE! Haha. 
By then, it was getting late, about 3-ish. Late for us, as we were concerned about driving down the mountain in the dark. Driving wasn't an issue. It was more of not wanting to injure any wildlife. For the record, I have seen the MOST number of roadkill while on Tassie. There were so many dead possums, wombats, hares, wallabies, everywhere. Sigh! So yes, we were not prepared to accidentally kill one while driving! We had a quick late lunch at the cafeteria, pizza and tomato soup. We were super hungry after all that walking. Food came and zap! All gone in a second! Post-lunch, we started our long journey towards Launceston where we stayed a night. We had dinner at this fancy restaurant, much recommended by our friends and my awesome blog readers and instagram followers (THANK YOU!) It was decadent, but the steaks and oysters we had were delicious! I'd recommend it if you're in for some steaks! 
Alrighty, so our Tasmanian DAY 1 adventure ended on a nice yummy note. I hope you enjoyed reading. I know it's lengthy, but just thought it might be useful for any of you planning on traveling there. Or better still, if you live there and would like to venture out to Craddle Mountain. I'm not an expert and I'm pretty sure I missed out on bits that's even better. But yup, that's all Darren and I could squeeze in one day. So hopefully this helps! See you back here tomorrow for some East Coast, sea-side adventures! XO 
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