MOT Tour Day 9 - Dove Lake & Devils

Cradle Mountain

For both of us, going to Dove Lake today removed one of the few remaining check boxes not ticked on our Bucket Lists yet it was a day which showed little promise. Weather forecasts seemed to clearly forbid anything of importance happening.

We woke to sunshine but the BOM site (one of the reasons given for changing their acronym) made it clear it wasn't going to last. On a specky, we thought we could at least go to the NP office and see if a bus ride into the park might be an option. Note here that if you want to visit and/or walk in Cradle Mountains NP, you have to have a pass and you can't take your car in. Shuttle buses run on the quarter hour. When my Mum and Dad were here thirty years ago, it cost and controls nearly stopped him from seeing the awesome Cradle Mountain.

The inside of the NP building looked like an airport terminal with queuing posts and ribbons and multiple attendants at counter stations. Hardly unexpected, as I counted at least 200 cars in the car park, plus coaches. There must have been at least 500 people in the park at that moment. The check-in concierge at the door - yep, in a NP visitor's centre - told Sue that the summer had been crazy with visitor numbers, one of their biggest ever but what marked it as different was that it was still busy in February.

It was cloudy but still not raining, so after a cup of coffee, we hopped on the shuttle and went on up to Dove Lake.

No amount of photographs prepare you for the majesty of the view. Despite being overcast, which was clearly dulling the tones and giving the near vertical walls of the mountain an indistinct, blended look which lacked definition, yet they still rose suddenly, in abrupt defiance. Dove Lake was dull but foreboding, as though some mythical creature might rise at any moment. As Sue aptly said in immediate response, it took your breath away.

We weren't here to walk but did two small reconnoitrers: first to the eastern side of the lake to stand on the lookout at Glacier Rock and the second to the western side and the iconic boathouse. The view from Glacier Rock is possibly as good as it gets and its a reminder from many millions of years ago of the formation of Cradle Mountain during at least three stages of glacial ice. The sun occasionally peaked out and there were moments of what the lake could show, but the peaks at Cradle Mountain and Little Horn stayed sullen in shadows.

On the western side, the enchanting view at the boathouse was like stepping into a postcard - except for the numbers of other tourists trying to sweep the experience up into their consciousness. It's important to note the courtesy shown by and to all as we took our photos and found our spot to mull. No one wanted to spoil the other's moments. Sue and I lagged behind as the clouds began stacking blocks and sat and contemplated. Parts of our life’s journey have been hard, some distressing, many wonderful and yet regardless of the odds against it, here we were.

The infamous boatshed at Dove Lake

From there, we made a hasty retreat and came up the last hill to the shuttle staging area just as rain drops started staining the crushed gravel at our feet. Amazingly, we were delayed by a German couple who asked us to take their photo, with CM in the background. I instead gave the mountain two thirds and them beside it, one third. They seemed happy with the result and disappeared into the ever darkening clouds.

On the way out of the park, we called in at the Ranger Station - in all probably the previous but not original Visitor's Centre. It’s a tired little place but with good displays and the obligatory audio visual presentation playing on a perennial loop behind black curtains. In another room, an interesting program in which the interviewer wore a wide tie and a serious expression and was teasing wonderful stories from Evelyn Temple Emmett, first director of the Tasmanian Tourist Bureau and founder of the Hobart Walking Club. Among other things, Emmett is famous for leading walking expeditions from Dove Lake to Lake St Clair, a walk now known as the Overland Track. Mount Emmett lies a few kms to the south east of Cradle Mountain.

Our final short ride on the shuttle got us back to the Visitors Centre and into our car but we detoured on the way back to our digs and called in at Devils@Cradle, a sanctuary undertaking a breeding and rehabilitation for Tassie Devils. The feisty little blokes have been having a bad time of it for quite a while now with large numbers of the native population being badly affected by a facial parasitic cancer that creates large tumours around their mouths. Left unchecked, they die from hunger, unable to feed themselves. The population of Devils in Tasmania has decreased by 50%, with at least 65% of Devils infected. This mob is breeding Devils from uninfected lines and releasing them into the wild. To do so, the Devils are progressively kept in ever larger sprawling pens built into a rainforest setting. The setting was here. The pens have been built into it. 

Devils have the noisiest calls and appear to be in constant contest with others in the enclosure. We watched one trying to find a quiet place to eat what looked like a possum’s tail, only to be pursued by two others and when they got too close, screams and dust offs ensued!

They also have populations of manic Eastern Quolls, who tear around like lightning bolts. Gorgeous coats, something that worked against them when white fellas came here. We have booked a viewing of a feeding session and an information talk by one of the keepers.

Click here for today's photos

Sue had a great treat even before we went in to see the Devils. We pulled up in their car park and there on the grassed slope above us was wombat, just going about doing what wombats do. Snout down eating grasses and their roots and dropping out their cube-shaped poo (which we had seen on the track earlier at Dove Lake). This is something you only normally see at night because the big fellows prefer the cool of the night to feed. However, because it is much colder in Tassie, they can also be seen during the day. Another lucky treat.

Not a bad day for one we thought was going to be a write off.