The Wilderness Village,Cradle Mountain.

[drron]

During this last stint in Tassie I took a weekend off with mrsdrron and went to Cradle Mountain for the weekend.An easy drive of just over an hour from Latrobe.So we went up Friday afternoon and came back Sunday.
It was a nearly last minute decision and Cradle Mountain lodge was booked out so we opted to stay at The Wilderness Village in a Premium spa villa.We were very pleased with the choice.The accommodation was well appointed,very quiet with more than adequate heating-even though it was a lovely weekend the maximum was ~ 15C and the minimum ~ 4C.

The bedroom.

Kitchenette.

View from the balcony.
Although you are told not to feed the wildlife guests obviously do.We had a visit from a possum in the best condition i have ever seen.He was definitely not scared and really wanted to come inside-

The Echidna though was a little shy-

But this is what you come for-

 

[drron]

We took our own food for some of the meals with Ashgrove and king Island cheeses.41 south Hot Smoked Salmon and Salmon rillettes-the local foods are awesome.
Friday dinner though we had in the Highlander restaurant in the Cradle Mountain lodge-was interesting to see the sign up that it is now part of the Accor chain-the Mgallery collection.The 3 course menu is $65.Wines are expensive with a very limited choice under $50 a bottle.Felt the menu was a little less impressive than 2 years ago and service not as good-staff though are basically transients so quality of service will obviously vary.We can though have a 3 course meal + a bottle of wine at our favourite New York restaurant which has 3 Michelin stars for the same price as here and that includes the tax and tip there but no tip here.
Lunch Saturday we had at the Lodge tavern-steak sandwhiches-$19.50 with not the most tender steak.
However we came for nature and that was enjoyable-several short walks and we did the Dove Lake circuit which is advertised as 6km but mrsdrron's pedometer showed 8.75km.Certainly for aging grandparents with dodgy knees it takes a lot longer than the advertised 2 hours-but hey going slowly allows you to appreciate nature and not just say-been there,done that.
So some more pics-

The beautiful Ronnie Creek.
Waterfall at park entrance-

And Pencil Pine falls-

The enchanted walk-

and some of the flora-

All in all a very good weekend retreat.Also reccomended was a visit to the Hellyers Distillery and Lactos cheeses in Burnie on the way home.