Tasmania Self-drive Day 2 Easter Sunday

Day 2 in Tasmania turned out to be fairly packed, mostly due to the addition of a visit to Cataract Gorge, originally planned for yesterday

We started the day with a full buffet breakfast at the hotel. Not remembering the English influence in Australia, it was a nice surprise to find that hot cross buns were served. As in many of our trips, a full hotel breakfast meant we could skip lunch. After arranging late checkout at noon, we proceeded to attend Easter service at the St John's Anglican Church. The church was about 15 minutes' walk from the hotel. We chose this church mainly because of  the convenient time of its service, which started at 10am. It was a family service, and the sizable church became filled with people of all ages.



St John's Anglican Church.

The weather on this day was gorgeous and it was a good decision the day before to defer the visit to Cataract Gorge. We took the chairlift up across the basin and walked down back to the Cliffgrounds. The walk served as a warm-up for our up-coming hikings in this tour.

Though the chairlift ride wasn't too hair-raising, it was probably not for the faint-hearted.



Cataract Gorge First Basin and Cliffgrounds

Alexandra Suspension bridge at Cataract Gorge's First Basin.

After spending a couple of hours at Cataract Gorge, we began our drive towards Cradle Mountain. As we had a sole driver in this trip, our itinerary was planned such that the total amount of driving in each day did not exceed three hours. And we made a point to arrive at our final destination of each day before 7pm. Driving at night in Tasmania could be hazardous, with the large number of wildlife active in the dark.

We stopped by Sheffield, reputed as the "Town of Murals", on the way to Cradle Mountain. The main street of the town is lined with houses decorated with colourful vivid drawings. Below is a random selection of some of them.



Virtual reality in the Town of Murals

We picked up some grocery from a local store before continuing the drive towards Cradle Mountain. We arrived at our lodgings, Cradle Mountain Wilderness Village, where we would be staying for two nights, just in time before the reception closed. There was a very nice view of Cradle Mountain at the reception area. This turned out to be the only time in the trip when we could see the top of the mountain, as it became rather rainy on the following two days.


Cradle Mountain as seen from the Wilderness Village reception.

After settling in our chalet, we prepared a simple but satisfying meal. Later on, the LED flashlight that we brought would prove useful for taking out the rubbish to the bin at the top of the driveway.