Day 17 (Friday 11th November 2022) was upon us and we had a full day at Cradle Mountain. Out accomodation deal at the Lodge included breakfast so we headed down there and enjoyed a nice cooked breakfast.

After breakfast we visited the Visitor Information Centre where they have some informative display and information about Cradle Mountain Lake St Clair.

It was a rather dull and overcast day, but we decided to do the Watersmeet and Platypus Bay walks. The Watersmeet walk takes you to the confluence of the Cuvier and Hugel rivers and the Platypus Bay walk is a short loop walk beyond that.

We were fortunate so see quite a bit of wildlife and birdlife along our walk. Sadly we did not see any platypus at Platypus Bay.

Despite the cloudy and foggy weather, there were some nice views of Lake St Clair along the walk.

We then visited The Wall in the wilderness at Derwent Bridge. It is a large gallery with two long stretches of wooden carvings. The carvings are from Huon Pine and took 7 years to complete.

Unfortunately no photographs are allowed in the gallery. But the video below shows you what it is like inside.

We had booked a trip on the Lake St Clair Ferry across Lake St Clair so we headed back to Lake St Clair Lodge. It was slow at times as there was an abundance of wildlife on the road.

We then caught the small ferry from Cynthia Bay to Narcissus and return. Along with the captain, the only other passengers on board other than Marija and I were some friends, one from Sydney and her friend from England.

Sadly it was very foggy and the Captain assured us that Mt Hugel, Mt Olympus, Mt Orthys, Mt Byron and Mt Ida were in fact still out there.

Before reaching Narcissus we stopped at Echo Point and were able to hop off the boat and have a walk through the rainforest.

We then reached Narcissus at the northern end of Lake St Clair and collected a group of bushwalkers that had been trekking for about a week through the National Park. Fortunately they sat up the front of the boat and we enjoyed the fresh air at the back.

It was late afternoon and we had some time for another activation of Cradle Mountain Lake St Clair National Park VKFF-0117. We headed back to our operating spot alongside the Derwent River.

Again the mosquitos were out in force, so we operated from inside the 4WD. We ran the Yaesu FT857, 40 watts, and the 20/40/80m linked dipole for this activation.

It was pleasing to see an opening on 20m long path into Europe. I worked the following DX: – Japan, Hawaii, Italy, Slovenia, France, Finland, and Belgium.

Marija made the following QSOs on 40m SSB:-

1. VK3UAO/p (Greater Bendigo National Park VKFF-0623)
2. Vk3GJG/p (Buckley Nature Conservation Reserve VKFF-2054)
3. VK3UAO/p (Kara Kara National ParkVKFF-0629)

Marija made the following QSO on 20m SSB:-

1. ZL1XS

I made the following QSOs on 40m SSB:-

1. VK3UAO/p (Greater Bendigo National Park VKFF-0623)
2. VK3GJG/p (Buckley Nature Conservation Reserve VKFF-2054)
3. VK3PF
4. VK3AMO
5. VK3VIN
6. VK3IK
7. VK2LEE
8. VK5HS
9. VK3KTT
10. VK3MEHG
11. VK2IO
12. VK3AWG
13. VK3UAO/p (Kara Kara National ParkVKFF-0629)
14. VK1DI
15. VK2YK
16. VK5GA
17. VK2NWT
18. VK2NP
19. VK2BYF
20. VK5HAA
21. VK3EW
22. VK3SQ
23. VK7HH
24. VK1TX
25. VK2EXA
26. VK5FANA
27. VK3ANL
28. VK3BWS
29. VK7XTC
30. VK5BJE
31. VK2PKT
32. VK2MOR
33. VK2CDB
34. VK3ACZ
35. VK3AHR
36. VK3ABI
37. VK5IS
38. VK3GRX

I made the following QSOs on 20m SSB:-

1. VK5HS
2. VK4HAT
3. VK2VW
4. VK2HFI
5. VK4TJ
6. VK4NH
7. VK4DXA
8. VK4CZ
9. JF7RJM
10. VK5KLV
11. KH6KW
12. VK4KC
13. VK4MAD
14. VK4DOG
15. VK4MGL
16. ZL1TM
17. IK4IDF
18. ZL1XS
19. IW2NXI
20. IZ6YLM
21. S55G
22. F1BLL
23. F4ILHJ
24. OH6GAZ
25. ON4VT
26. IW2BNA
27. OH1MM

We then packed up and drove the short distance to Derwent Bridge where we went out for dinner at the local hotel.

References.

1. Tasmania Parks & Wildlife Service, 2023, <https://parks.tas.gov.au/explore-our-parks/lake-st-clair/lake-st-clair-walks>, viewed 3rd January 2022.