either snow, nor rain, nor heat, nor gloom of night, nor the winds of change, nor a nation challenged, will stay us.

Early in the morning, I headed northwest from Launceston and up the other side of the Tamar River to Beaconsfield and Beauty Bay.  At Beaconsfield there is a gold mine and heritage centre with some very interesting information gold mining in the area.  The mine is still operational, as well.

Next, I made my way upriver to Beauty Bay where you find Platypus World and Seahorse World. Both places were interesting, especially Platypus World where I got to see a Platypus up close and personal. Up until now, I've only seen them in the middle of the pond as they are very shy. There were also echidnas (a porcupine type animal that also lays eggs like a playpus) to feed and entertain us. Seahorse World is an information centre as well as a sea life farm.  They ship various types of seahorses all around the world for people's aquariums.

I started my way south towards Cradle Mountain, making a stop off at the site of the oldest settlement in Australia, Yorktown. There is nothing left here of the town as it was abandoned in 1805 because the land was no good for growing stuff and too far away from the river to be useful for shipping. I also made a trek into the wilderness to find and view Liffey Falls.  It was a beautiful walk through a rainforest that time forgot. The falls were magnificent and worth the 40 minute walk down to see them. The road up there was also one of the windiest roads I've ever encountered (which is saying something in Tasmania) and I don't think I took my car out of 3rd gear the entire way up or down. It was a little nerve-racking, especially when I encountered another vehicle coming down the track.

The next stop was Cradle Mountain. This is a World Heritage National Park and a great place to visit.  I am definitely coming back some day. The hiking trails take you to all kinds of extremes and the people here are fantastic. On arriving, I immediately booked for the after dark spotlight animal tour.  We saw wallabies and wombats mostly. We even saw a wombat baby poking its head out of it's mama's pouch for a little snack.

The next morning I woke early to begin my trek around the area.  The day started off very rainy and cloudy.  In fact, it was so cloudy the shuttle bus driver had to point between two other mountains and say, "That's usually where Castle Mountain is." As disappointed as I was, I began my hike around Dove Lake, a two hour journey that took me through every Canadian season. I started with rain, and as I made my way around it began to snow, yes snow. Luckily, at the same time, the cloud cover around Castle Mountain began to clear a little so I could make out the shadow of the left peak of the mountain. A few minutes later, patches of blue sky began to appear, but within minutes it was again snowing.  The weather would continue in this pattern for much of the day.  Snowing one minute, raining the next and sunny blue skies in the next. It was insane. I've even managed to take 3 pictures of Castle Mountain within the day and you would never guess that they were taken on the same day.

Once done Dove Lake, I next walked up to Crater Lake. By the time I got there it was almost blizzard conditions. I could barely tell there was a lake there. I made my way back down to shuttle bus area and went back to the entrance of the park. From there, I caught a bus tour of the park and learned about it's history. A German man came to this area and was so impressed by it's beauty and botany that he declared that it should be a place that all should enjoy.  He convinced his rich wife to buy some land and they made it into a wilderness retreat area in the early 1900s. Not a whole lot has changed since then, other than there are hundreds of people that tour the area everyday. Shuttle buses (an ingenious system) transport people to the various trail heads so that traffic congestion is limited within the park. The tour also included a Tasmanian Tiger exhibit which was a fascinating study of the extinction of the Thylacine with the habitation of people on the island. There was also an exhibit of fantastic wilderness photography. Definitely made me feel inadequate with the photos I'd taken that day.

I finished the day with a fantastic buffet meal at the Chateau and friendly conversation with a tour bus driver. It was a great day at Cradle Mountain, and if the weather was better I would definitely stay.  Someday I will have to do the Overland Trek (something like the West Coast Trail) from Cradle Mountatin to Lake St. Clair.

Cradle Mountain is a must do for those of you who make it to Tasmania.