Wednesday Dec 2
We had breakfast at the hotel as it was included in our room rate then hit the road around 10am for the 2.5 hour drive to The Pump House - on lake St Clair inland from Hobart, on the other side of Cradle Mountain. It was an easy and very scenic drive - the weather was very changeable as we drove along with sudden squalls and temperatures hovering around 10C. Since checkin at the Pump House was at 2pm we stopped at Tarraleah for a light lunch - we each bought nice merino jumpers in their gift shop.
We arrived at the Pump House at 2pm and checked in - we had booked the best room - it is really amazing place - a renovated old pumping station on the edge of Lake St Clair in the middle of Lake St Clair National Park.
After a short walk around the lodge we headed back to our room to relax - the weather had turned very nasty - cold and driving rain and high winds.
At 7pm we went to the dining room for pre-dinner drinks followed by a communal dinner at 7:30pm (ie tables of 8 with family style dining). Dinner was Moroccan chicken followed by chocolate tarte for dessert - all pretty ordinary. It was nice to shoot the breeze with fellow travellers - one lady, traveling solo, was a doctor who had spent 15 months in Anarctica and was headed back in December - she was quite entertaining.
Thursday Dec 3
We awoke to a great day - only partly cloudy and much warmer than Wednesday. After brekkie we drove the 5+ k's to the Lake St Clare visitors center for the day’s activities. We started with a short 1+ hour easy walk then had our lunch - a homemade sambo using the free loaf of bread and somewhat costly goodies from our mini-bar at the Pumphouse. We then took a ferry to Echo Point (about 20 minutes along the lake) and commenced the supposed 3 hour walk back to the visitor’s centre along the lake. In spite of making what seemed like great progress it still took us 3.5 hours - we arrived back somewhat buggered. We stopped at the visitors center for arefreshing and well-deserved beer and cider then it was back to the Pumphouse for showers. Dinner was a repeat of the previous evening - family style dining (roast kessler, red cabbage, potatoes and beans) - our dinner companions were more interesting than the previous evening.
Friday Dec 4
Off to Hobart - we left the Pumphouse around 9:30am and headed to Hobart.