At just 6 km, the flat, gravel and duckboard track is very easy going, leaving you to focus entirely on the jagged peak of Cradle Mountain, which looms above the track. Depending on the weather, which switches from snow to sleet to sunshine in seconds, Cradle Mountain can seem brooding or pastoral or inviting, and some days its twin dolerite spires are completely obscured.

Along the way, there is a greater mix of terrain than one might expect for a walk of this distance, including scrubby button grass, sandy beaches, cascading streams and at the mid-point of the walk, a very special rainforest known as the Ballroom Forest. This enchanted stand of moss-covered myrtle-beech trees is the stuff of folk stories, and it is easy to picture magical creatures playing amongst its leaves.

Wiki Says: Dove Lake is a corrie lake near Cradle Mountain in Tasmania, Australia. It lies in the Cradle Mountain-Lake St Clair National Park. The lake is a very popular visitor attraction and is encircled by well maintained walking paths which also lead up onto Cradle Mountain. It was named by prominent local Gustav Weindorfer after an official of the Van Diemen's Land Company.

Like several other lakes in the region, Lake Dove was formed by glaciation. The habitat is unique and includes the Tasmanian deciduous beech (Nothofagus gunnii), tussock grasses, snow gums and pencil pines. Among animals wandering the shores of the lake are numerous wombats, echidnas, pademelons and tiger snakes [deep joy, guess who’s following who, nice to know you see me as bait........no, I see you as my Pathfinder and my tigress, yeah, yeah, yeah].

The bus stop left behind.

A short detour off the track to stand on Glacier Rock.

From Glacier Rock we could look across the lake and see the tiny dots heading to Marion’s Lookout. Back to the track we avoided the walk that cautioned of ‘steep’ and ‘rough’ – if they say it is it really must be....

The scenery, truly lovely.

The track took us through an old wood and we enjoyed the old trees.

Massive rocks, banksia blooms and a corner.

Lovely burls on the trees.

A cheeky bit of track, a tree that we thought looked like a naked man on a ‘motor bike’.........on through the woods.

Lichen and moss by the hundred, in all colours.

Looking up.

Half way around the lake, out in the sunshine, we stopped to look back on what Bear described as a beautiful garden.

Back into old trees, stunning coloured rock and the track continues on the other side.

ALL IN ALL PART TWO NEXT