Cradle Mountain

 

 

I had been really missing - almost craving - the feeling of standing on top of a high place, being able to see mountains below me. Memories of hiking to mountain peaks and being at the top of a ski run were my go-to thoughts just before I fell asleep in the evenings. We set an alarm after the coldest night of the trip (also when a possum attacked on our couscous), quickly packed up our tents in the freezing morning and set off for the peak of Cradle Mountain. We were warned about how quickly weather conditions could change up there (it's almost as high as Kosciuszko but a much more challenging climb up) but we were quite lucky, because it's not uncommon for it to start snowing this time of the year. It was a really fun boulder-climb to the peak, feeling like we were really 'climbing' up the mountain. The way down was accompanied by amazing views of the various mountain lakes, we even think we saw a platypus in one! The nature is so unique there, very different to mainland Australia. The light was also so different - very bright, almost blue-ish light that added to the eerie atmosphere walking back along Dove Lake.