The day dawned bright and sunny, but it didn't last long - we spent the morning in alternating sunshine and misty rain. Perfect hiking weather, so off we went to explore the national park on wonderful boardwalk trails covered with chicken wire - great for wet weather.
The King Billy Pine Trail led us up in the mountains, through the rainforest and huge King Billy Pine Trees. This tree was named for the leader of the Aboriginal people who first lived in Tasmania. The significance of this tree is that it helps confirm Tasmania's link to the ancient supercontinent Gondwana; fossil records of this species from nearly 100 million years ago have been found in New Zealand and South America.
Further into the park we picked up the Ronny Creek Trail, which traveled through an area devastated by drought, as well as lush rainforest. This is part of the Cradle Valley Boardwalk, a wonderful system of trails throughout the wettest areas of the park. We saw a pink robin and were introduced to square poop left by wombats on the boardwalk. A friendly wallaby came out to visit along the way.
We had a look at Dove Lake and walked the trail around the lake to Suicide Rock. It was mostly misty, but we caught a bit of sun to get a nice view of Cradle Mountain across the water.
We visited Waldheim Cottage, the home of Gustave Weindorfer - the man who pushed for the creation of this national park. His life and love of nature makes him sound like Tasmania's answer to John Muir. Our final trail was to Pencil Pine Falls - the water is reddish brown due to the tannin from the surrounding plants and trees.
Leaving the park, we enjoyed a beautiful ride through the countryside over to the northern coast of Tasmania. In mid-afternoon, we arrived in Launceston, in the northeastern part of the state. Located on the Tamar River, it is Tasmania's second largest city.
Soon we were out walking again. Launceston has a population of about 65,000, but it has the feel of a large country town - with lots of elegant nineteenth century buildings. Wayne took us first to the local pub for a cold drink and a lesson in understanding the fine old sport of cricket - we watched the game on a big TV, but we're a long way from understanding it. It's a pretty quirky game - kind of like an 8-hour baseball game with a break for tea.
We looked at assorted historical buildings and learned about this city's role in colonizing two cities on the Australian mainland. It was news to us that Tasmania was settled first and folks moved from there across the Bass Strait to develop Melbourne and Adelaide.
