February 29 – Cradle Mountain to Launceston

February 29, 2016 – Cradle Mountain to Launceston
We met up at 8:30am to hike. It was drizzly and temperature about 12° C or 55° F. We did a short hike near the lodge followed by a 2 mile hike into a valley containing many varieties of trees. We came out near the start of the Overland Trail which for Australians is like our Appalachian Trail. It takes many days to hike it. We had our picture taken at the start and walked in a hundred feet and walked back to the bus.
We went up to the Crater Lake atop Cradle Mountain and hiked around for about 40 minutes. We finished up our time by going to Waldheim which was the guest house of the man who got this area preserved as a National Park..
Our first stop after leaving Cradle Mountain was Sheffield. It is town known for their painted murals. They have a yearly contest where each mural must represent their vision of a selected poem. I have no pictures of the murals because it was raining when we stopped and I left my camera on the bus.
On our way to Launceston drove through Railton a town known for its topiary,
Last stop before Launceston was the Ashgrove Cheese Factory.We were able to sample different cheeses including Wasabi cheese. They had homemade ice cream so I had a cup of Honeycomb Ice cream.
The rain continued all day.
We have arrived in Launceston at 4pm. I have gotten a cold somewhere and will rest until dinner.