Mount Field is home to Russell Falls, the most photographed waterfall in Tasmania, as well as platypuses and countless pademelons, which are a marsupial similar to small wallabies. We would be seeing a lot of those things throughout the trip.
Although Tasmania is small, the roads are very slow and winding, so it takes a lot longer to get places than you'd think. We had really underestimated how long it would take us to get from Hobart to Strahan. Google maps says it should take 4 hours, but we spent 7 hours driving (not including our stops). It was a long day. When we arrived in Strahan all the hotels were closed, so we were a bit concerned we'd be camping in the public park for the night. We eventually found a holiday park with cabins and I called the after-hours number. The owner was very nice and came down to the lobby to give us a cabin. At this point it was getting pretty late, so we went straight into "town" for dinner.
Quick note: Lindsay and I have figured that if a Spaniard ever moved to Australia, he would never eat a single dinner. We have found that food service ends very early nearly everywhere we go, big towns, small towns, whatever. So for those of you looking to visit soon, consider yourself warned.
The only place open at 8:00 was the local pub. They didn't look terribly excited to see us walk in the door that late (the kitchen closed at 8:30), but seated us anyway and suggested we make or orders quickly. The food was very good though, and it was warm in cozy inside. After dinner we attempted to watch a movie on Lindsay's laptop but fell asleep about 30 minutes in.
The next day we vetoed the touristy Wilderness Railway Tour and Gordon River Cruise in order to purchase supplies and get up to our next destination (Cradle Mountain) as soon as possible. We needed gas though, and we had a little trouble finding a gas station that was open (it was, after all, a Sunday). Luckily we had just enough gas to make it a little town called Rosebery, which is about halfway between Strahan and Cradle Mountain. In Rosebery we were able to purchase everything we needed for our Cradle Mountain camping adventure, including Lindsay's new favorite Cadbury chocolate rolls and a Cadbury Fruit and Nut bar (a tribute to Grandma Elsie).
From Rosebery it was only another 2 hours and we were at Cradle Mountain National Park where we planned to hike and camp for a few days. We checked into our great campsite, complete with indoor cooking facilities with log fireplaces, hot showers and a camp store with cold beer. We had the afternoon free so we drove down to the ranger station and went on a little hike up Dove Canyon.
After 20 minutes of walking along a roaring river, we saw our first echidnia. No, not the "mother of all monsters" from greek mythology, but the egg-laying, spiny anteater (or porcupine)-like creature I had been so keen to see. It put on quite a show for us, which we happily took in for about half an hour. The rest of the hike was beautiful. Waterfalls, valleys, moutains, deep gorges. All there for us to enjoy. There was one thing that perplexed us on the hike however. All over the trail were little, tan, cuboid pieces of poo. I had read that this was the poo of the wombat, and based on the sheer amout of the stuff, we should have been swimming in wombats. Despite the plethora of stools, we didn't see even one (we found out why later). After the hike we felt the temperature dropping, so we stopped by the store in the Cradle Mountain Lodge where we got Lindsay a warm hat (yet another wonderful purchase). We then popped into the tavern at the Lodge to warm ourselves by the fire, enjoy a glass of wine, and plan our big hike to the summit of Cradle Mountain. 
Later we returned to camp, cleaned up, and got situated in one of the shared enclosed kitches. Cooking garlic shrimp and pasta by a roaring fire sure is a nice way to camp. Halfway through dinner Lindsay went outside to feed a flower to one of the local pademelons.That night we had a bit of a surprise and we figured out why our tent is rated as a three-season and not a four. Overnight the clouds disappeared and the temperature dropped below zero. It was uncomfortably cold inside the tent and it was tough pulling ourselves out of our sleeping bags at 7 the next morning (thank goodness Lindsay had that hat). We quickly got dressed, scraped the ice off the windshield, and downed a breakfast of sourdough PB and Js. We drove to the bus stop and waited for the shuttle bus that would bring us to Ronny Creek, the start of the Overland Track. We would be hiking the first part of what is know to be one of the best backpacking trips in the world.
We were dropped off and registered our hike in the logbook. It was glorious. It was early morning and we were hiking in the middle of nowhere under sunny blue skies with no one else around. Again, loads of poo, no wombats. After about 2 hours of hiking we rose in elevation to Marion's lookout, a perfect vantage to see both Cradle Mountain as well as Dove Lake.
We continued on to the base of the mountain and started up the steep climb to the summit. I will admit that it was a challenging climb over steep boulders treacherously balanced above 300 feet vertical cliffs. But boy was it fun. For Lindsay it was more scary than fun. I had forgotten that she's afraid of heights.
But with a few creative white lies told by me, I coaxed her to the top. The view from the top was spectacular and well worth the effort. And, by the time we got to the summit Lindsay had relaxed a lot and found the climb down lots of fun. When we got back to the base of the mountain we continued to hike along the rock face and around some of the other lakes (Dove Lake, Twisted Lakes). It took us another another 4 hours to get back to the start though, making for an 8 hour total hike. Exhausted, we drove back to the campsite and got cleaned up with a hot shower. Again, we drove down to the tavern at Cradle Mountain Lodge. By the way, the Lodge is the fancy schmacy place where rich people stay and pay several hundred dollars a night for a room. We on the other hand preferred to just take advantage of the tavern's wood stove and nice beers/wine. We had a great time relaxing and rehashing the day while eating soup and nachos. It was all deserved after our very long adventure.
After dinner we walked around the Lodge and waited to be picked up for the Cradle Mountain night tour. In the twilight we could see a bunch of people staring at a greyish/brown lump in the grass.....a wombat! We all took tons of pictures and videos as the little bastard calmly chewed on the grass minding his own business.
Just about then the bus for the night tour arrived and off we went. The bus had multiple spotlights shooting out in all directions and two in the front that could be aimed if needed. By the time we had finished picking everyone up (around 9pm), it was pitch black outside. That is when the best part of an amazing day began. Remember the mystery poo? As we scanned the sides of the road we finally knew where it was all coming from. Wombats were everywhere. In fact all sorts of kangroos, wallabies, ringtailed possums, and womabts were literally everywhere. It was like a nocturnal Serengeti.
We dropped half of the group off at "Devil World" where they would see the elusive Tasmanian devils in captivity. Five minutes afer leaving them, we were treated to seeing 3 devils in the wild. It was amazing. At 11pm the tour came to an end and we quickly went to bed. The hike had really worn us out. The next morning we stopped into a small local cafe where Lindsay did some work and I read my book. At 11 or so we took off to the Tamar Valley and Launceston: Tasmanian wine country.
*We'll be posting a link with all of our photos soon.
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