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To say the last week has been hectic has been an understatement in every way possible yet extremely rewarding. Well from Devonport where I last brought you up to speed, I made way to embark on a big personal challenge climbing to the summit of Cradle Mountain. For this I would base myself in the quiet and quaintly beautiful town of Sheffield which is about 70km from the Cradle Mt National Park. Before hand I stopped off at a cheese factory and tasted a large variety of Tasmanian cheeses which was very nice before exploring Sheffield and arriving at my pretty little B&B.
After making myself at home I had a few hours to kill before I would consider dinner so I took myself to another National Park site just south of Sheffield to the Marakoopa Caves. This turned out to be well worth the twisting journey as our guide showed us all the stalactites and stalagmites which were very pretty and at the end were rewarding with a good look at a colony of glow worms hanging to the top of the main cave. In the pitch darkness of the cave they looked like little green stars.
Next day was the big day and I made my way to the National Park to climb this mountain. After checking the conditions of the weather and plotting my course at the visitors centre, I jumped onto a shuttle bus to Dove Lake where my hike would begin. I anticipated it would take me 6hrs to climb allowing 3hrs to climb, half hour at the top and two and a half hours to get back. With this in mind and everything at the ready I made way. The first summit I would reach was at 1100m which was a warm up but also part of my course and this was called … After that the track went down before a steep climb up to a boggy plateau which was about 1200m up and then I started the real summit walk.
As I rose another 200m up the track I still classed this as a walk but past this point it was a climb along unstable and of course very rocky surfaces. At this point any fall would be fatal! I kept going and after two and a half hours I was at the top! The view was spectacular which was helped by the perfect weather I had for it. It was so peaceful with not a breath of wind and at this point I was the highest person on Tasmania and I really felt on top of the world looking down at splendor.
After taking in the Euphoria and munched my victory apple (a tradition I started at Mt Field), I looked down and wondered how the hell I was to get down! Because the rocks were so unstable I decided that on the shale covered areas I would simply slide down on my arse. This worked very well and fun too! After completing the summit walk, I joined a couple of fellow walkers who followed me up the summit with a rest at the bottom before I headed back to Dove Lake bus stop.
This was quicker than planned and after 4hrs and 45min I had done full circle and worked out my whole trip was approx 13km. Doing this was one of my proudest achievements to date on this trip if not ever because it was so hard and demanding and I am for sure very proud of myself for it.
Well done me!!!
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