Australia
Cradle Mountain
A jagged dolerite peak mirrored in a glacial lake — gateway to Australia's legendary Overland Track.
Dove Lake lies still beneath the jagged dolerite spires of Cradle Mountain, its surface reflecting the peak so perfectly that the image looks inverted rather than mirrored. Wombats graze on the alpine meadow between lake and forest, too well-fed and unbothered to acknowledge the photographers.
Cradle Mountain-Lake St Clair National Park in Tasmania's northwest is the starting point of the Overland Track, a 65-kilometre, six-day walk through buttongrass moorland, pencil-pine forest, and glacial tarns to Lake St Clair — Australia's deepest natural lake. Cradle Mountain itself is a dolerite peak shaped by Pleistocene glaciation, its jagged profile iconic in Tasmanian tourism. The Dove Lake circuit — a two-hour boardwalk around the lake's perimeter — is accessible to walkers of all abilities. Wombats, pademelons, and Bennett's wallabies are common throughout the park, particularly at dusk. King Billy pines in the higher elevations are endemic to Tasmania, some specimens over a thousand years old.
Solo
The Overland Track is the solo walker's rite of passage — six days of alpine wilderness, hut-to-hut, with the mountain behind you and the lake ahead.
Couple
Luxury lodges with mountain views, fireplace evenings, and the Dove Lake circuit — Cradle Mountain combines wild Tasmania with warm comfort.
Friends
The Overland Track as a group — sharing huts, sharing the weather, sharing the achievement of walking Tasmania's spine together.
- The jagged dolerite peak mirrored in Dove Lake is Tasmania's most photographed view — for good reason.
- The Overland Track starts here — a 65-kilometre walk through buttongrass, pencil pines, and glacial tarns.
- Wombats graze on the alpine meadows at dusk — they are so common here they barely glance up.
- Luxury lodges with floor-to-ceiling windows face the mountain, wood fires burning after each day's walk.
Peppers Cradle Mountain Lodge — Tasmanian wallaby and local trout beside a log fire after the Overland Track.
Highland Restaurant — the lodge's fine dining option using Tasmanian produce from paddock to plate.
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