Cradle Mountain isn’t done with us just yet
We wake to a stunning morning in Cradle Mountain. After yesterday’s rain, this morning’s sky is blue. The clouds are white, fluffy and sparse. It’s like we’ve woken in a different time and place. It’s frosty and cold but beautiful. We scrape the thick frost off the windscreen and assess our options. It’s a little icy underfoot and the roads might be a little slippery… and that scenery is just waiting for us.
Instead of heading down to the coast right away, we decide to take advantage of our Parks pass, which lasts until 11am – they expire exactly 24 hours from time of purchase. Your parks pass includes free shuttle bus tickets. We head to the visitor centre and jump the shuttle bus to Dove Lake again. We’re glad we did and get some great shots of the lake and mountain which had been shrouded in cloud yesterday. Our driver on the way up to the lake talks continuosly all the way up the mountain with a lively assortment of anecdotes, dry jokes and local information. His story about biting into a pepper berry is particularly amusing. Spoiler alert: I don’t think anyone on this bus will be trying raw pepper berry off the tree.
Off to Strahan
Just before 11am we’re back on the winding roads. Things have warmed up and the roads are less treacherous, but I still slip the EV6 into sports mode for the extra assurance of all wheel drive. We’re back on the winding roads and I’m enjoying the drive, letting the car run in the sun, but easing off a little in any areas that don’t look like they’ve had any sun yet. I’m still a little wary of ice not having melted in the shady areas. We turn south west and head towards Strahan.
Our planned accomodation is a little less up-market and we’ve booked a holiday cabin in the Big4. It turns out to be warm and comfortable, if a little small, but we’re determined to experience a variety of accomodation types. We’ve scouted an Electric Highway charger near the harbour and less than 2 hours later we’re wandering through Wilderness Woodwork while the car charges up back to 84%. Thanks to our big charge yesterday, we’d arrived comfortably with more than 60% in the battery.
Whether you have $10 or $10,000, or anything in between, there’s a piece of woodwork here for you. I wouldn’t suggest a Tackling Tasmania Road Trip with a huon pine table strapped to the roof though, so luckily they deliver. There’s a cool little sawmill offering guided tours next door and we get to see some of the local Huon pine being milled.
Council has some well maintained toilets nearby, but the hours are limited, so don’t rely on them if you arrive after 4pm, or any time on a Sunday. Visitor information is in the same area and we call in for some guidance on what to do in town. We find that hiring toboggans and sliding down sand dunes is popular. The kids love this idea and conicidentally hiring is from the Big4 reception.
The rest of the family wander off towards the main street of Strahan in search of some food, while I return to collect the car. I drive around to park in front of the pub and we all meet up in a local cafe. Everything is an easy walk and electric cars are well catered for with a charger close by.
Waterfalls, Toboggans and Sunsets
After a quick bite to eat, we head to Hogarth Falls for a walk. This is a beautiful short walk out to a waterfall on the outskirts of Strahan. It’s about 15 minutes each way. The rain has stopped and the falls are flowing well. Well worth a visit. Plenty of parking and a nice picnic area when you first drive in, then a very straight forward walk out to the falls and back. If you’re interested in identifying the trees, there are signs along the way to tell you what types of trees are along the track.
Then it’s to the Big4 to check in and hire our toboggans. A quick stop at the IGA ensure’s we’ve got dinner sorted. Much to the kids disgust, not every meal on this trip is going to be a hotel buffet. We unload our luggage and head off tobogganing at the Henty Sand Dunes about 12km back out of town along the road we came in on. Tobogganing is lots of fun, but walking back up the hill takes it’s toll and we’re done in about an hour. It’s after 4pm anyway, so we head back to town.
We want to try for a sunset looking out over the sea, although the clouds are back. We decide to head off to Macquarie Heads, which is 12km out the other side of town. What we didn’t realise is that 10km of that is gravel roads. The roads are reasonable, although a bit corrugated and we make our way out to the end of the road where there’s a campground and boat ramp. We don’t see much of a sunset with the clouds in the way and head back into town along the gravel road.
Traffic is light and we travel reasonably quickly, but after a couple of close calls with native wildlife we’ve slowed it down a bit. Thankfully we didn’t contribute to the road-kill but could see how easy it would be. The EV6 performs really well on the gravel and having the regenerative braking on auto level 3 was probably what saved our wallaby friend. I hadn’t even got my foot across to the brake pedal, but the engine braking had already kicked in giving the wallaby a split second more time to get out of my path. Driving at dusk means wildlife are about, so please slow down for them.
Frankly I wouldn’t bother with the drive all the way out to Macquarie Heads unless you want to camp there, or have a boat to launch. If it’s a nice day, go as far as the picnic area and stop there. The picnic area is marked by a short stretch of paved road, strangely isolated in the midst of the gravel roads. You’re driving along on the gravel when suddenly you get some paved road fo about a kilometer and then back to gravel It’s like the picnic area was funded for paved road, but the previous 5km to get there wasn’t.
Tasmania’s west coast sunsets are supposed to be stunning, but we missed out due to the cloud cover. There are probably better viewing places available, so maybe do what we didn’t do, and ask at visitor information for some tips.
Overnight Charging
Getting back to our accommodation we’re down to about 73% on the charge, so I run an extension cord out the bedroom window and plug in the granny charger. I didn’t want to run this all night, as I thought it might rain. I ran it until 11:30pm though and got us topped up to 83% ready for our drive tomorrow. Many places aren’t geared up for electric cars yet, but an extension cord out the window will get you charging, as long as you didn’t forget the granny charger.
We’re headed for the big smoke of Hobart for two nights and this will possibly be our biggest driving day in Tasmania.
