Wombat Pool & Marion's Lookout, Cradle Mountain (Day 2).

After our sunrise walk around Dove Lake and a light birthday breakfast, we were ready for another adventure and drove back to the national park to do more hiking. Initially aiming to only complete the 2.5 hour circuit around Wombat Pool, we ended up going further and climbing to Marion's Lookout. It started pouring half-way during our hike, which meant I couldn't take many photos during our descent as we focused solely on hiking down the very rocky, steep terrain (most of which required the help of carefully placed chains) while raindrops relentlessly tapped the tops of our heads, dripping down our faces and severely reducing our visibility. Not to mention I had to protect what is arguably my most important asset from the rain—my camera!

Something you might notice in a lot of these Tasmania photos is how the weather seems to change between being rainy, sunny, and somewhere in between. You'll notice several photos of the same two crater lakes in this post all look as if they've been taken on different days, but it's merely because the weather changed over the course of our walk.

I loved running into all of the other hikers and saying hello as we passed by, meeting each other with quiet admiration and a mutual understanding of what the other was going through, hiking for hours in the wet and cold. There was this sense of camaraderie. Many of the hikers we ran into were just beginning their 7 day hike on the renowned Overland Track (which I also hope to tackle one day).

The alpine plateau between Marion's Lookout and Kitchen Hut is listed on Wikipedia as being 1,250m above sea level. We made it to the second highest peak, and although we wanted to make it all the way to the top, Martin decided to exercise restraint due to his leg already going through a lot that day and the fact it was raining heavily. Regardless, the view was still spectacular, albeit it being daunting to see the carpark as a tiny dot in the distance and knowing we'd have to walk all the way back there. The entire walk from Dove Lake, to Wombat Pool, to Marion's Lookout and back took us approximately 4 hours.