12 Feb : Cradle Mountain, Tasmania
Early start to day. No I'm not talking about 6:30am so we could get breakfast right when they opened at 7am. We had a bat in our room buzzing our heads in the night. I thought it was a big moth, turned the ceiling fan on full blast to make it go elsewhere, stuck a pillow over my head, and eventually fell back asleep. +Jill thought it might be a bat but thankfully didn't speak this to me or I wouldn't have slept (and she didn't do so well).
In the morning Jill sees something right next to her suitcase and asks me what I think it is. I look at it and say "a bat". Yikes. It almost landed in the suitcase. I guess the high speed fan killed it. Traumatizing.
[Editor's note: It was beyond traumatizing thinking about what if it would have landed in suitcase.]
We went to the breakfast buffet to eat before hiking an unknown amount of time. After a decent filling, we picked up our "picnic" lunches for the road. What they don't tell you is that the Dove Lake loop is some version of "Lord of the Flies" and you cannot possibly stop anywhere for any reason let alone consuming food. Slow movement was fine and I suggested we eat while walking to minimize fly interaction. This also applied to taking photos of the lake - little to no stopping.
Let's get back to the walk before lunch though. Wow! It was serene and we were out there early. No wind and very few people (maybe 10 cars in the lot and the first bus had definitely not dropped anyone there).
We walked a LOT and got to Marian's Lookout before many people were on the trail. It was a great view in spot after spot on the way up there. The last stretch involved huge steps next to a chain to assist you up (or down). Down was more treacherous. Jill wasn't pleased.
After we went down, we walked by Crater Lake. Let's just say that it's not truly a crater and no where near the spectacle in Central Oregon. If you haven't seen that Crater Lake. Go there now. By the time we got to walking Dove Lake, the people (on shuttle buses) and the flies had shown up. Beautiful but we had seen so much beauty already so now we had to eat while walking and constantly move aside as people going the other way went by or they moved aside for us.
We were beat by the time we got back but spent time updating photos from several days back on Flickr.. It's a constant battle, we take lots of new photos, then we have to update them all. The lodge booked us on a "Tasmanian Devil Feeding" tour at 5:30pm so we went to do that. The expert was knowledgeable but not skilled on the presentation side. The tour was SUPER informative and VERY technical but just a deep dive with no overview. While informative, it lacked something. I will say it was REAL and worthwhile so it's hard to complain too much. We did learn lots and got to see the devils at different development states plus feeding. We also got to see some close relatives like the quoll.
We eventually headed to dinner where the service at the lodge restaurant completely bonked (and not just us but the two other tables next to ours) but the food was decent to good. The distraction of the day though had to be when a guest came in and said there was a platypus out in the pond. Boom out I go to capture a photo. I went out twice. Very cool.