The day after our sweltering climb (humid and in the mid 90's) to Marion's Lookout at Cradle Mountain, we packed up and headed for our second Tasmanian National Park lodging at Lake St. Clair. We drove via the NW, an area that has a long history of mining and sports an open pit copper mine that rivals the one in Butte, Montana.
After a break for lunch at Strahan on the coast, we pushed on to our lodging at Lake St. Clair. Our plan was to climb Mt. Rufus the next day and bag some views of the area including north towards our Cradle Mountain walk.
As I was parking our car, I noticed a brown lump amongst the fallen limbs and leaves. It was an Echidna!! This was one of the many marsupials I had wanted to see on our trip. It is an anteater, and there it was, foraging for ants right next to our cabin. Score!!
We woke up during the night to the sound of rain on the metal roof of our cabin, but about 5 AM it stopped (for at least 15 minutes). When we got up it was in the 30s, and just below the cloud covering Mt Rufus we saw snow!! But the forecast was for improving weather and the ranger said it should clear by the afternoon.
So we packed up the rain gear (including rain pants) and an extra fleece, and set off after breakfast. It was a 5 hour round trip. About an hour into the walk we saw snow along the trail, but Mt. Rufus beckoned.
We were lured onward, and although we summited, it was in a compete white out. The weather was intermittent rain/snow showers so we did get a few pictures during the occasional weather break, and actually met another couple on our way down who snapped a picture of us.
It would have been nice to get a few more views, but we felt it was a fair trade trade for the adventure of a summiting in a snow storm. A first for Kathy.
Wow, snowing in the middle of summer.
ReplyDeleteWow, extremes of weather. And some way cool animals you've seen
ReplyDeleteWhat an adventure!
ReplyDelete