The trip departs out of Launceston at 8am from the Hotel Grand Chancellor. Our initial drive takes us into the Mersey River valley, and along the base of the Great Western Tiers, before we stop after an hour or so for a morning tea break. From here it’s only another 1.5 hours before we arrive at Cradle Mountain village. We will stop at the main visitor centre to pick up our park passes, then have lunch on the edge of the park before heading out on our main walk for the day – the Cradle Valley Boardwalk. This easy walk takes us along the course of the Dove River and features a vast assortment of native flora. In early summer the endemic Tasmanian Waratah flowers are particularly magnificent. Once at Ronny Creek, we go searching for wombats across the buttongrass plains before looping around to the historic Waldheim Chalet – originally built by the parks founding pioneers Gustav Weindorfer, and the site of Cradle Mountains first tourism venture.