Cradle Mountain Day 4 – Blissful Solitude

Continuing on with my adventure at Cradle Mountain recently, this day was a great one for walking.

I decided to do the Cradle Valley Boardwalk starting from the Ranger Station and finishing at Ronny Creek seeing as I had already done the last section via Lake Lilla the day before, making it about a 5.5 km walk.

The boardwalk started out in a beautiful mossy green forest then opened up to big skies and wide landscapes.

 

It was raining on and off but it was so quiet. It was really pleasant listening to the occasional bird call and the sound of rain falling softly. It felt like I was in another world.

Every now and then, there would be a short path to a kind of lookout area with a seat to rest on.

There was even a sun shower!

Someone’s home by the boardwalk.

I spent a bit of time at this next spot. I tried to find the source of the unfamiliar birdcalls, but the rain and grey skies made it quite difficult.

I did get a quick video of one bird, but can’t make out what it could be. Anyone got any ideas what it might be?

Back on the main track again and it started snowing! You can even hear a black currawong calling at the end of the video.

I saw quite a few black currawongs along this track today. Here’s just one.

This next bit of the track felt like I was in a ghostly tree graveyard.

 

The track then became more closed in with forest.

Just after I spied a sign saying I was at a spot called Snake Hill (and looking around me wondering if it was appropriately named!) I saw a wombat run across the track in front of me and hide like a statue in the bushes near the track!

And just a few metres on, I saw a very casual Bennett’s wallaby munching grass.

Here he is enjoying his grass.

Not long after, the sun came out and some blue sky appeared. It was amazing how the landscape looked so different.

I crossed a bridge over a river and saw some interesting fungi.

And then I came across an obstacle – a huge tree had fallen on the boardwalk and damaged it quite a bit.

I was only minutes away from my destination of Ronny Creek, so luckily I was able to squeeze under the fallen tree trunk and scramble to the other side. Although, now that I think about it, maybe that wasn’t such a good idea in case the tree moved and fell on me.  🤔

And here’s another black currawong I saw coming in to Ronny Creek. I love the look on his face!

At Ronny Creek, the sun disappeared and it became cold and bleak again.

I really enjoyed trekking the Cradle Valley Boardwalk. There was lots to see, different wildlife, little tracks detouring to the river, it rained, it snowed and was sunny for awhile. It was so peaceful walking on this path, it was blissful solitude. I never saw another person the entire time.

As this is quite a long post, I’ll continue my day’s walking in my next post. I decided to continue the walk from Ronny Creek to Waldheim and finally check out what was there. And it was definitely worth it!