We got up early to get ready in time to catch the 9 AM Tazzie link to Cradle Mountain-Lake Saint Clair National Park, which is a U.N. World Heritage site. The ride was a bit windy, with beautiful views of rivers and eucalyptus forests-very different from the forests in the U.S., which is probably what makes it look so exotic to me. We took a ferry that took us from Cynthia Bay across Lake St. Clair to Narcissus Bay, shaving several hours off our hike. The lake is the deepest fresh water lake in Australia, and is at 700 meters altitude. It is surrounded by more forests punctuated by rocky peaks. We were on the boat with 15 other passengers, all headed to different parts of the Overland Track which is like the Pacific Crest Trail or the Appalachian Trail in terms of its popularity here. There is a series of huts along the track, and each can hold 24 (or maybe more) people. Almost all of the hikers we met were Australian.

We stopped for lunch right after arriving on the shore after the ferry ride. It was a beautiful day with blue skies and lovely white clouds. The first part of the hike was particularly stunning. Several flat areas with scattered eucalyptus trees standing high above the other plants and good views of the peaks against the sky. There are a variety of low to the ground plants, including button grass which grows in 3' wide and 2' tall clumps, and also a low evergreen. On the hike in we saw a padamellon which is a size down from a wallaby which is a size down from a kangaroo. Pat, Angie and Jason also saw a King snake which is venomous, as most of the snakes in this country seem to be. We hiked 6 miles total to the Pine Valley Hut which was quite full, and we ended up camping long the trail instead. The forest was pretty marshy with small palm looking angiosperms and lots of moss and lichens. We had a good dinner, a number of cookies, and looked at the stars for a while along the boardwalk trail until we were disturbed by a 1½" wide spider. We decided it was no longer a good place to sit after that and went to bed.