Cradle Mountain Christmas

Garry and I are continuing our “staycation” year with a 12-day tour of Tasmania’s West Coast.  Regular readers will recall we visited Australia’s island State for the first time in December 2013.  At the time we raced through much of the West Coast.  The region impressed us greatly and we vowed to return for a more leisurely visit.

We flew to Launceston early evening on 23 December and collected our hire car.  The following morning was spent stocking the travel larder at Coles and visiting a couple of business contacts before heading towards Cradle Mountain.  Our route inland took us first to my favourite Tasmanian winery, Ghost Rock, where we collected a dozen bottles for the cellar.

Our next stop was a local cherry farm where we collected some tasty seasonal produce.  It was then on to The Truffledore on Cradle Country Farm.  As we drove into the complex, we discovered it was closed. However, the owner saw us and waved us into the visitor’s centre.  Much to our delight, we enjoyed a private truffle tasting session.

In 2013, we stayed at one of the luxurious spa cabins in Cradle Mountain Wilderness Village.  It was a superb venue.  We decided to chance our luck with another visit.  We were a little nervous that the cabins might have suffered some wear and tear in the intervening years.  However, we’ve needn’t have worried.  They’d been refurbished and were just as good as ever.

On Christmas Day we treated ourselves to a decadent lunch at Peppers Cradle Mountain Lodge.  The menu was superb.  The meal kicked off with a seafood platter, followed by a traditional Christmas roast dinner and finished off with a delicious shared dessert platter.

 Boxing Day was spent working off our Christmas Lunch. The day dawned with clear blue skies.  We drove up to Ronny Creek and spent the day hiking up to Marion’s Lookout (1223 metres). Our efforts were rewarded with an awesome view of Dove Lake and Cradle Mountain.  We then returned to Ronny Creek shortly after sunset to do a bit of Wombat spotting.  The experience was as awesome as it had been in 2013.

Our final day at Cradle Mountain was spent hiking the Dove Canyon Circuit, followed by a visit to the Devils at Cradle sanctuary.  We spent several hours watching the keeper feed Tasmanian Devils and Quolls after dark.  It was another experience just as awesome as the first time.