Peppers Lodge, Cradle Mountain (Day 1).

I am pretty excited to share this next round of posts with you. Cradle Mountain was, without argument, one of the highlights of the trip. I made sure we spent two nights here to have ample time to explore, and it still didn't feel like enough. If you can, definitely spend 4-6 nights there. This is a place I know I will keep coming back to, whenever I can.

We began our journey to Cradle Mountain from Launceston, driving the Great Western Tiers route. We stopped at a raspberry farm on the way, too—no photos, and sadly no raspberries to show for it either, as we missed the harvest by one day (it would have been the next day). We did, however, help ourselves to some raspberry ice cream and jam to take home.

We stayed at Peppers Cradle Mountain Lodge. I loved that our room had firewood outside for the fireplace inside—not something you're ever likely to see in Queensland. The lodge surroundings were beautiful, even in this overcast weather. After a little rest and a change of clothes, we decided to do one of the short walks around the lodge to make the most of our time. We could only fit a small one in before the sun would set, so we chose the Enchanted Forest Walk, which was a 20 minute circuit around the property. We came across many wallabies and even a pademelon (the wallaby-like marsupial with the darker fur in one of the forest photos below) searching for their dinner while we were out.

November in Tasmania also means the sun doesn't set until closer to 9pm (even at this time of year, the sun was still setting at 7:30pm in Queensland). I loved these longer days, because it meant we could fit so much in before dark.