How hard could it be to climb Cradle Mountain??

One of my dad’s goals was to climb Marion’s Lookout, the tallest viewing point at Cradle Mountain, while were in Tasmania. It was only 11.5km uphill. The family put on our jumpers, ate a big breakfast and caught the shuttle bus to Ronny Creek to start our hike. Mum had cooked15 chicken drumsticks and bought some chocolate and bananas for energy. Dad was super keen on climbing the hill, Ruby was unsuspecting, mum knew what was coming and I thought I could do it.

Our first goal was to get to the waterfall. I was behind and when they stopped they stopped for a break then kept walking. When I finally reached the waterfall I got a thirty second brake and was still puffed out. to cool down, I was about to drink from the waterfall then a spider jumped on my hand. It was not nice at all.

We reached an old shack, called Marion’s Hut, mum tried to convince dad this was the goal. Dad did not fall for it and didn’t give her any chocolates. There was a lovely view that you could only see if you either were in a plane or you walked. This is because it was basically a lake shaped into a circle by the huge green, graceful mountains.

By then I started to run 200m ahead of everybody so I could go at my own pace. I decided to not concentrate on the frustrating pain of the steep slope by counting how many circular rocks I could see. It was very effective and people who have problems walking should try it! While mum and dad were talking to someone, I ran ahead. Walking to the mountain was hard but beautiful. Climbing up the apex of Marion’s lookout was easy and fun for kids because it had lots of rocks, ladders and chains and felt like a playground. My mum did not enjoy this stage at all.

When mum and Ruby finally reached the top of the hill, we looked for snow. Sadly, there was no snow because it had melted after a week of warm days. As we sat there admiring the view, I thought I had saw an eagle soaring. But it was only a crow trying to nick our chicken drumsticks! Still, it was soaring and looked really cool when the crow closed its wings together and dived bombed. We gave it a chicken drum and it flew away with it. Funnily, it dropped the bone and it started to roll down the hill.

The view was exquisite on the way down. Everyone, especially mum, was much happier and relaxed. There were lots of wombat poo everywhere. It was really funny because the sign read ‘Wombat Pool’ but the rain had washed away the L so it read ‘Wombat Poo.’ I thought it was very accurate. A little further on I had a refreshing drink from a stream which came out from the lake that flowed from the mountain.

We finally reached our pickup point, four hours later. Around Dove Lake there was lots of wildlife including a friendly echidna and a tame wallaby. I wanted to feed a tame wallaby my banana but a tourist said ‘ no no no you might give the wallaby a disease‘ so I didn’t feed it.

That was our hard and beautiful day!