After spending a few days along the northern shore of Tasmania, we finally head inland to explore the mountain range. A winding road through the bush takes us to a little town called Waratah, as we stop for a lookout on an impressive waterfall. What also impresses us is the collection of endless kangaroo poo all around the grass patch where the lookout is based.

As we continue further, we arrive to one of Tasmania’s best known highlights – Cradle Mountain National Park – known for a range of features, including wild landscape, beautiful rainforest and alpine heathlands, glacial lakes and a wide variety of wildlife. The unique mountain range and Dove Lake at the foot of Cradle Mountain is one of the best sceneries you will ever see. The lake is circled by a six-kilometre track that offers one of Tasmania’s best walks, though real hikers would be interested in the famous Overland Track – a 6 days / 65km all the way to Lake St Clair.

Traveling with our three young kids, we made the tough decision to give it a miss this time, and take the shorter track. We drove to Dove Lake where the road ends, shot a million photos, then did a portion of the walk along the water. The views are just stunning so whatever you do it’s going to be a success, as long as the weather is good and the sun is shining. The locals indicate that on many days throughout the year the weather can be cloudy or rainy, so we consider ourselves very lucky to see blue skies.

We parked overnight at the next door caravan park, met an echidna on the side of the road, and many more cute little tasmanian pademelons (the local kangaroos) next to our caravan. It’s freezing outside, we had no power and had to cuddle altogether to make it through the night.

The following morning, marking 3000KM to our road trip so far, we went back into the national park for a few walks around the bush, next to narrow rivers and majestic waterfalls. The local wildlife was there to greet us – more and more tassie pademelons, and the rare wombats which are hard to spot in the wild.

Later on, we went back to see the mountain up close and took the path to Glacier Rock which overlooks the lake and offers more unforgettable views of the mountain. Eventually we retired back to the caravan park, exhausted, and had a few visitors around our van – a few cheeky and hairy possums, which we initially mistaken to be Tasmanian Devils… – they sniffed around our belongings outdoors and when they couldn’t find any food, they literally tried to break into our caravan. It was quite a battle to keep them outside!