Cradle Mountain's jagged dolerite spires mark the start of a six-day traverse across Tasmania's central wilderness to Lake St Clair.
I picked up the trail at Ronny Creek below Cradle Mountain and Dove Lake, a scene so classically alpine it barely looks Australian, and spent the first afternoon deciding whether to detour up Cradle Mountain's summit itself — most walkers do, weather permitting, since it's a half-day round trip from the main track.
The middle days cross buttongrass moorland and pockets of ancient myrtle-beech rainforest, past Pine Valley and Mt Ossa, Tasmania's highest peak, which I climbed on a side trail from Pelion Plains under a sky that changed four times in an afternoon. Public huts along the route are basic and can fill in peak season, so I carried a tent as backup, which is standard practice here even for people who never end up pitching it.
The track finishes with a choice: walk out along Lake St Clair's shore or take the ferry across, which after six days most people take gladly. Book through the Tasmanian Parks system well ahead for the October-to-May season, when a daily walker cap and mandatory north-to-south direction are both enforced.
