Day 297: Drive to Cradle Mountain — Another Nature Walk
After two nights in remote Corinna, pretending to be 1800s gold prospectors, we’re off to our next spot. The whirlwind itinerary — one night here, two nights there — is less exhausting than we’d imagined. We’re so efficient with our stuff, and love the freedom of having our own car, that it makes it fun.
On that note, 10 months in we’ve gotten to a point where we’re a little tired, not surprisingly. So it’s nice to have an itinerary all laid out. No decisions, nothing to do except look at the paper, show up and enjoy. This is a real “pro” on the pro/con list for using travel agents to help you create trips — especially trips like this that are rapid-fire traveling over extended periods of time.
We would have been too tired or lazy to plan this roadtrip and find all these isolated little corners of the island at this point in the year. And we never would have stopped at things like the Wall in the Wilderness if we didn’t already have a booking.
The roadtripping’s fun too. Lots of life convos, as mentioned, and plenty of stunning terrain. Very few other people — either in these small towns — or on the road. Plenty of roadkill, though, so cars are definitely coming through here.
We haven’t been allowing screen time for any road trips this year (unlike at home). Makes it a bit challenging, but for the most part the nerds have been okay. We’ve had a few moments of yelling into the backseat at wrestling, out-of-seatbelt kids, but today they looked out the window and listened to some audio books.
We left Corinna around 10 and headed in the direction of the closest town, Waratah. This is the closest gas station to Corinna, and it’s an hour away. This gas station might be the most random place we go all year.
My Australian mom-friend Monica back in NYC sent us a list of Aussie junk food to try, so we picked some up. Freddo Frogs!
The cashier told us we needed to check out the local waterfall, so we did. It came with a little public park, bench and gazebo with a view. Teddy and I ate a bag of chips while the kids ran around.
Getting sunburned
At one point James walked up to us and goes, “Can I have the keys to the car?” Huh? “I need to get in the car.” Why? “I need some hand sanitizer.” Why? “I picked up a poop because I thought it was a pine cone.” Indeed he had poop-dusted hands. Got him cleaned up.
Amazingly after almost 300 days on this trip, we haven’t figured out basic stuff like…sunscreen. We sat out there for 20 minutes in the cold but sunny morning, and all got fried. This is the story of our parenting by the way. We never remember the basics on a day outing: sunscreen, hat, snacks, water. Grrrr.
This town is similarly empty. About 50 low brick buildings, a 100-year-old inn, some cafes, a post office, the library, a school and houses. But no people! Sunny, clean, abandoned. It’s eerie.
Before 
After
We made it to the Cradle Mountain Lodge, which is more hotel-cabin than Corinna-cabin. We fought the very strong urge to shower (it’s been…awhile), instead grabbing lunch at the lodge and going for a 45-minute trek.
I honestly don’t think I’ve ever done so much nature-walking in my life.
Water reminds us of Brazil’s Rio Negro
Did you know wombat poop is cube-shaped? Apparently so that it won’t roll away when a wombat marks its territory.
We saw a wombat and an echidna, but still no platypus. After I upped the reward for spotting a platypus to a chocolate bar, James claimed he’d seen a few that had inconveniently jumped in the water before I could confirm.
Back at the room Teddy and I took turns showering — best shower of the year? To go from chilled-to-the-bone cold and wearing the same exact clothes for three straight days (including sleeping) to a hot steaming modern shower was heavenly.
We did school, which is always harder in the afternoon. Morning is best.
As a treat, we showed the kids another clip from Crocodile Dundee. Remember the end? When she decides she wants to be with Mick after all and runs to catch up with him at the crowded midtown subway station? And she can’t get to him so there’s that hilarious game of telelphone with cliche’d NY characters (a black guy with a red bandana, a fat white construction worker in an orange hat), and then Mick walks across everyone’s heads to get to her while the crowd claps? The kids were laughing so hard, and so earnestly at this cheesy scene. They LOVED IT.
They took a bath while we drank a complimentary port the room offered.
It was only when I built a fire here, in this new fireplace/stove thing, that I realized how old and ill-functioning the one back in Corinna was. Upon reflection, our 150-year old cabin was a total tinderbox. ….eek. We know its smoke alarm worked, but yikes. That’s probably one of those scenarios we’ll look back on and shudder (like the boats in Flores). But we survived!
Teddy was a saint and took the kids to dinner and cards while I uploaded all the recent blog posts (we’ve had em written but we’ve been off the grid). They saw more wombats!
God I love these things. 
Everyone was asleep by 9:30 in a cozy, warm bed. Everyone except Willa who is a Harry Potter zombie. Didn’t have to sleep in our coats!
