46. Cradle Mountain National Park to Stanley, Tasmania. Part 2 of our road trip doing the lap of Tasmania, Australia.
In this episode we are continuing our road trip doing the Lap of Tasmania.
We start off by discovering Tasmania’s highest waterfall, and we tell you about the unique way to reach the bottom of the falls.
Our lunch spot was one of those places that you can only discover on a road trip. Lake Rosebery at Tullah was idyllic.
Finally, we found our way to our accommodation in the world famous Cradle Mountain national park.
If there is one place that people have heard of in Tassie – it is Cradle Mountain. It is almost too beautiful to describe with its snow covered mountain peaks, ancient rainforests, glacial lakes and abundance of unique Australian Wildlife – it is breathtaking.
We share which walks and hikes to do, how best to explore the national park, where to stay and the best way to see those adorable Aussie animals.
In fact, I share my favourite Aussie animal, and how excited I was to see some and a very, very interesting fact about these little furry creatures, that I guarantee you have not heard before!
Lastly, we head north to Stanley and the famous "Nut" – which is a very unusual looking large rock formation that can be seen for miles.
We take you up the nut, tell you how it was formed, and wander around the top to see the best views of Bass Straight and the beaches of Stanley.
One of our favourite things about Stanley was the seafood – and no wonder as all the local restaurants source the freshest local catches straight off the boats each day – just think, lobsters, crayfish, scallops and oysters – yum! We share the best places to experience the local seafood and where to stay when visiting Stanley.
We hope you enjoy episode 46 which is Part 2 of our Tasmanian road trip.
SHOW NOTES AND PICTURES BELOW
Montezuma Falls
We left Strahan on a beautiful sunny day on our way to Cradle Mountain.
Our first stop was Montezuma Falls. It is 70km from Strahan and takes about an hour and 15 minutes due to the windy roads.
When you reach Montezuma Falls, you have to leave your car in the carpark and walk the 11km return track to the bottom of the falls.
The track is mostly flat with compacted soil, as it is the old tram line that was used in the area. There are many wooden sleepers to walk along as well. The scenery along the way is lush and beautiful. Once you reach the falls, there are a few wooden steps and a suspension bridge where you can see the best views of the falls. Montezuma Falls are 104 metres high – the highest in Tasmania.
Tullah and Lake Rosebery
After a nice morning hike, the next stop was Tullah 34km away. Tullah is on Lake Rosebery which is a very pretty man-made lake. It is surrounded by walking tracks and pretty scenery.
We had lunch at Tullah Lakeside lodge which also has accommodation. It is a great place to stay if you want a central spot for hiking and water activities.
Cradle Mountain National Park
After lunch we had a 40 minute (54km) drive to our accommodation in the Cradle Mountain National Park. We were booked into the Cradle Mountain Wilderness Village for two nights.
The accommodation was fabulous and in a great location. The bar for happy hour had incredible views of the mountains and the restaurant was open for dinner each night.
You can’t drive right into the national park. There is a large, modern tourist information centre where you can park your car or vehicle. A shuttle bus leaves at regular intervals and drops people off at all the main hikes and picnic areas along the way.
We went on the Dove Lake Hike. It is approximately 6km and takes about an hour and a half to two hours, depending on how many stops and photos you take along the way.
The track passes directly below the peak of Cradle Mountain, and if you are lucky, on a clear day you will have a great view of the whole mountain.
You can hike to the summit of Cradle Mountain which is a 12.5km grade 4 track.
Cradle Mountain is also the beginning of the 65km challenging Overland Track which can take 5 to 6 days and finishes in the southern part of the park at Lake St Clair.
One of the best things to see in Cradle Mountain is the unique wildlife. You might see platypus, Tasmanian devils, kangaroos, echidnas, wallabies or, my favourite, wombats.
We did a night time wildlife spotting tour with McDermott’s and we were lucky to see some cute furry wombats. Just as an interesting fact here – wombats do cube poos. They like to stack them around their burrows and the cube shape prevents the poo from rolling into the burrow and shows other wombats that the burrow is taken.
We loved our few days in the stunning Cradle Mountain National Park. It was time to move on though and our next stop was Stanley and the famous “nut” on Bass Strait on the north-western coast of Tasmania.
The nut is a very large, unusual looking, rock formation that is actually a lava plug.
It is the dominating feature of the landscape around the pretty little beachside village of Stanley.
We stayed at the Stanley Seaview Inn which had fantastic views of the nut. The rooms and staff were fabulous and we would certainly recommend staying here - and they have a great happy hour at the bar with awesome views.
Stanley is well-known for it’s seafood and we certainly enjoyed our fair share. From crayfish, lobsters, oysters and scallop pies. Of course, the Tasmanian wines were abundant and delicious.
You can hike to the top of the nut or take the cable car. The top is a flat easy walk around grasslands and has fantastic views of Bass Strait and the beaches and village of Stanley.
As you can see Tasmania is an absolutely stunning part of Australia and just perfect for a slow road trip.
Our next episode will take us through one of the prettiest little villages in all of Tasmania - maybe Australia - big call I know - Deloraine, then on to Launceston and Tamar Valley wine region.
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