The next stop of the trip sees us set up camp in a little seaside village named Penguin. Its quaint and has us positioned right on the water front on the north coast of Tasmania facing the mighty Bass Strait. The weather is fine and the sunrises are spectacular so nothing to complain about. The local shops and restaurants are well worth a visit if you are in the area.

We get the opportunity to take a day trip to Dove Lake and Cradle Mountain and what a trip it is. We arrive at the lake and after a bit of messing around with the car park where there are boom gates partway to the lake that had us thinking that we couldn’t proceed any further but were only there to control the number of vehicles down in the lake car park at any one time, we find that the crowds haven’t started to appear so we have the start of our walk almost to ourselves.

We park the car and head down the walkway towards the lake and find that even from the top of the ramp there are photo opportunities. The shots below are from the car park and the first ramp down to the lake’s edge so you don’t have to go too far to appreciate the beauty.

 

We have committed to walking the track around the lake and we have turned up at just the right time. There is not a breath of breeze so I manage to snap a mirror reflection of the lake with Cradle Mountain in the background. Happy Dave!

The walk around the lake presents way too many opportunities and I spend the next hour and a half in my happy place. There are way too many shots to put in this blog so I have selected a few different angles and subjects to highlight the beauty of this location.

We walk clockwise around the lake from the car park via a very well kept track and boardwalk combination which follow the lake’s edge where possible. At stages the track moves back toward the slopes and becomes stairs, upward winding paths and crazy pavement tracks but you are presented with vantage point after vantage point so you always feel in contact with the scenery. Before we know it we have walked the best part of six kilometres and climbed the equivalent of sixty stories of steps.

The last part of the loop brings us to the Boathouse which is an iconic feature of the lake. I have shown a number of shots below of the Boathouse from different vantage points.

We finish our trip to the lake and mountain with lunch at the cafe and then make the drive to the small town of Waratah. We intend to stay here in a week’s time so we scope out the most important aspects of the town; the accommodation, the views and the local pub. All receive our tick of approval so be prepared for a report from this location soon.

We complete the loop back to Penguin via Burnie stopping in to a local distillery along the way. A taste test completed and some of their fine product under our arms, we return to the van happy with the day’s outing.

The next few days are spent wandering the coastline and visiting the towns of Bernie, Sulphur Creek and Heybridge. Its a great spot.

Next we head further west to Stanley where we will look to visit the north-west corner of Tasmania.