Day 3 was sunny and cloudless the whole day. The destination today was Cradle Mountain visitor centre – about 2.5-3 hours or 185 km away in the alpine mountains. There were 2 route options from Strahan of similar length and we chose the one retracing our steps to visit Queenstown – a town we had skipped 2 days earlier due to the time of day and inclement weather.

Queenstown is an old mining town [add detail]. Hunters Hotel in the centre of town was dated circa 1898 and most of the buildings had an air of neglect as seemed to be common in these more remote locations. The railway station however has been repurposed as a tourist attraction (the West Coast Wilderness Railway) providing a link to Strachan through the rainforest and serving a good cup of coffee, even if the credit card machine didn’t work.

Next stop after Queenstown (via a couple of photo stops of lake and mountain scenery en-route) was the Cradle Mountain Visitor Centre which is a required stop to purchase a park entry ticket and to catch the shuttle bus up to the walking trails in the area and in particular, Dove lake. During normal opening hours, cars are not allowed this far into the park and the shuttle bus journey is 20 minutes making it a long walk to the start of the hiking trails.

Arriving at the Visitor Centre at 13:40, we were more than a little disappointed to discover that the shuttle service had been suspended due to scheduled works on the road to the walking trails. Not impressed! The only option was to check in to our accommodation, 15 minutes drive down the road – a forest lodge, pretty much in the middle of nowhere (no internet!)

The (small number) of images from the day (mainly Queenstown) can be seen here.

Cradle Mountain, we revisited early the next morning when luckily the sky was cloudless - images here.