The road into Dove Lake was still closed on Sunday morning when I arrived so I walked the 8kms in to see Cradle Mountain. By the afternoon the road was open to 4wd vehicles and I was fortunate to get a lift back to my car at the park entrance with the 4wd Park Explorer bus. On my third day, I chose to ride my mountain bike in as the road remained closed to little 2wd drive cars like mine and the shuttle buses were still not running.
I saw things you never see from inside a vehicle. I saw many many animal footprints in the snow, revealing the activity of numerous unseen animals. I saw sulphur crested cockatoos in the snow, and a timid pink robin flitting along the lumps of snow until he was only a metre away. I saw tiny orange fungi on tree trunks and a startled wallaby staring at me. I saw a flock of tiny wrens and a raven hanging upside down on the traffic mirror at Snake Hill fighting his own reflection.
Day 1
I am not sure how to describe the monochrome serenity of Dove Lake on my arrival on Sunday. Not a single car in the car park, not a breath of wind, no movement on the lake surface. It was as if the lake was waiting for something. Complete silence except for an occasional distant bird call. The surface of the lake was beautiful and strange - meditative. Black and white lacey reflections of the snow covered mountain sides, and a strange grey pattern on the still surface. At first I thought it might have been tannin foam but I soon realized it was ice, thin slivers of ice.
I might be crazy but I am not stupid. I had thought it would be amazing to climb up to the Twisted Lakes to see them surround by snow. I still think it would be amazingly beautiful. But I realised very quickly there was way too much snow and ice to attempt that climb over Hanson's Peak - alone. So, I decided I'd stay low and 'walk' around Dove Lake. Usually, this walk is an easy 1 1/2 hours. Not this time. 4 1/2 hours and I would not call it walking. Floundering, falling, trudging, even crawling, often sinking knee deep and thigh deep in to soft powdery snow.
There is a track here somewhere under the snow. At about this point I seriously considered turning back. A currawong was creepily stalking me, flying silently from tree to tree, watching, following..
Even in the sheltered Ballroom Forest snow lay thick on the ground and the boardwalk.
Several times, when I could not see the track or the buried boardwalk, I followed wombat tracks. I began to think of them as snow angels guiding me along the correct path. Wombats like to follow our human pathways and boardwalks, usually they leave piles of cube shaped pooh as evidence. In the snow they left footprints instead. I discovered that wombats still follow the tracks, even when buried under 1/2 metre or more of snow. There were no human footprints until I was almost back at the Dove Lake car park. I had been following wombat tracks for some time without any sight of the board walk at the far end of the lake when I almost fell onto the little picnic platform (below).
Afternoon tea on a beach on the eastern side of the lake. I had company. Cheeky currawong. He also got into my plastic bag of nuts as soon as I turned my back to take a photo of the surreally silent scenery.
Day 2 - Vale of Belvoir
There were snow and rain showers on the Monday. I spent much of it in my cabin, reading and writing, but I did drive out to the Vale of Belvoir, to the west of Cradle Mountain. I saw wedged tailed eagles soaring over the valley and frozen tarns, and wallabies bouncing through the snow under the tall myrtle trees.
Day 3
After leaving my bike near the bus shelter at Dove Lake, I 'walked' to Lake Lilla and then took the low route to the Cradle Valley boardwalk below Waldheim, and then up to Crater Lake and back - another four hours of floundering around in the snow.
Button grass for breakfast.
30 cm icicle near Crater Falls
More icicles hanging near the top of Crater Falls
A flock of rosellas searching for lunch
Crater Lake - another serenely still scene, until it started snowing while I sat in the snow eating my lunch. Snow and rain drops blurred the reflections briefly, and made me a little nervous. The sky became quite dark and I worried about finding the snow buried track back if it snowed too much, but it cleared quickly.
It was here that I met another human. He surprised me by appearing on the track coming down from above the lake. He had wisely decided not to go up to Marions Lookout as the snow was too deep and chosen to take the lower route back to his car. I decided to return the way I had come after his description of knee deep snow. Earlier, at the bridge on Ronny's Creek, I had met three men wearing snow shoes, who had set off to walk the Overland Track, but only made it as far as Crater Lake before deciding to turn back. The going was so slow and tiring they decided they would not be able to make it to the first hut at Waterfall Valley before dark. I commented that one kilometre in these conditions was worth about four normal kilometres in terms of the effort and energy required.
But - ah, the beauty!
