Sunday, July 10, 2011

The universe loves us


Day 31: Cradle Mountain

We woke up this morning to torrential rains. We thought that was it, our luck had run out and we weren’t going to be able to do the trek we had come to Tasmania to do – Cradle Mountain. So instead of rushing over as we had originally planned, we took our time, had some breakfast in town, and headed on our way just as the skies (and our hopes) cleared up a bit. But on our drive, the rains came back, and we assumed we wouldn’t be able to do the trek.

We still drove to the mountain and when we had sucked it up and decided to do the hike in the rain, the skies miraculously cleared up – completely! We have had the best fortune when it has come to things we have wanted to do and we can’t help but think we must have done something really good in our life to deserve all of this.

So with our raingear in tow (just in case), we headed out to our hike. We had originally wanted to do the 6-8 hour hike up to Cradle Mountain, but finally opted for the less strenuous two-hour trek around Dove Lake.

The walk was peaceful and took us through the forest that surrounds the lake, with stunning views of the surrounding mountains, including the Cradle Mountain peak. There was a slight fog/mist in the air from the rainclouds but the sun did make several appearances. Due to the heavy rainfall earlier, there were many small waterfalls making their way down the mountain to the river.

 Then, three quarters of the way through our walk, we saw a turnoff onto a lookout points. We couldn’t see where the lookout point was, so we started up the track to search for it. There was a warning sign that said “difficult and steep”, but we scoffed: how bad could it be, after all our difficult hikes. Well, it started off with huge puddles of water and mud, and many such deterrents at the beginning of the path, but we somehow found our way through the sludge and continued. Waterproof shoes would have been nice, as Rachna’s shoes, socks, and feet got completely soaked. Gaurav got lucky with the hiking shoes he bought (and didn’t know they were waterproof). But we trudged onwards and upwards as the hill became harder and harder to climb. Our legs were killing us as the mountain got steeper and steeper, but as we made our way higher on the mountain, with spectacular views of the valleys below surrounding us every which way, we couldn’t help but wonder what was at the end of this track. We came to a point where the climb was so steep, we were actually rock climbing vertically – holding onto the chains that were bolted into the rock, and hoisting ourselves up over the rocks and boulders. We were exhausted, but we kept going for a long time, until we finally reached the summit of the mountain. It was unbelievable. There was snow on the ground, it was windy and cold, we saw a wallaby in the wild (up so high!), and all around us were snow-capped mountains with huge lakes below, and valleys as far as the eye could see. The view was indescribable. We couldn’t believe we had trekked all the way to the top of the mountain – it definitely wasn’t what we were expecting as we had started on that track, but it was worth all the effort and strain to be up there.

If we though the trek up was hard, you can’t imagine how difficult the trek down a mountain can be! It was treacherous, steep, and slippery from the rains, and Rachna prayed the whole way down that we would survive (which, obviously, we did)! It was such an exhilarating hike, and likely our most difficult hike in the past month. When we got down the mountain and looked up to where we had been, we were in awe. It was so high! We finished our trek around the lake and went to have a well-deserved meal before driving out to Launceston.

The drive was precarious because we were driving on smaller roads through national parks, which are heavily populated by wildlife, so we had to drive slowly and keep our eyes peeled for animals darting in front of our car. During the drive, we saw a lot of wildlife (and even managed not to kill any of it) – wombats, wallabies, Tasmanian devils, and even some wild bunnies and hares!

We arrived in Launceston late, with no hotel to stay in, so we drove around the seemingly dead town looking for a place to stay. After about an hour of searching, we finally found one hotel, checked in, and went to the grocery store to buy something to eat, since everything was closed by that time. We gobbled down our food in bed and then passed out of sheer exhaustion! More tomorrow!

Rained out

 View on the way up our crazy climb... 
this is what helped us continue to the top!

We made it! 

 Woohoo!

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