Cradle Mountain National Park and the Overland Track

Cradle Mountain is the central feature to the Lake St Clair National Park, part of Tasmania’s World Heritage Listed Area.

Cradle Mountain-Lake St Clair National Park was listed as a World Heritage National Park in 1982 due to its unsurpassed natural beauty, its cultural significance and its unsurpassed pristine wilderness. The park features a vast array of natural and cultural features found to be of global significance.

Cradle Mountain National Park is home to Mt Ossa, Tasmania’s highest mountain. Made up of jagged Jurassic Dolerite peaks, it was named after the famous Mt Ossa in Greece, significant to Greek mythology.

Cradle Mountain rises to 1545m above sea level and is composed of Jurassic dolerite columns similar to other mountains in the area.

Cradle Mountain was named after its resemblance to a gold mining cradle. PHOTO

There are four named summits of Cradle Mountain –its highest being Cradle Mountain at 1545m, Smithies Peak 1527m, Weindorfers Tower 1459m and Little Horn 1355m above sea level.

Cradle Mountain – Lake St Clair National Park is home to Australia’s only deciduous tree – Nothofagus gunni, a Beech that is endemic to Tasmania and features a stunning Autumnal display from April to May. Most native Australian flora is evergreen!

The Cradle Mountain area shows geological evidence of three glacial stages over the last 2 million years. Lake St Clair, among other natural features such as the labyrinth of caves beneath the earth’s surface was formed partly by glacial processes.

A variety of rock types, landscapes and soils and a rich biodiversity of plants and animals found here are remnants belonging to the ancient supercontinents of Pangaea and Gondwana.

Lake St Clair is Australia’s deepest natural freshwater lake (167m) carved out by glacial periods over the last 2 million years.

http://cradlemountaintours.com.au/information/cradle-mountain-facts/

Ayers Rock and the Olgas

Uluru or Ayers Rock, is a large sandstone rock formation located 450km (280 mi) away from Alice Springs in the middle of the Australian Outback.

Officially, the rock has a dual place name of Uluru / Ayers Rock.

The rock is a holy place for the Anangu tribe of Aboriginal people in Australia who have been in the area for around 10,000 years.

The first foreign people to see Uluru were explorers led by English born Australian William Christie Gosse, his group set eyes on Uluru, 19 July 1873 and decided to call it Ayers Rock after Sir Henry Ayers, the Chief Secretary of South Australia at the time.

Uluru is estimated to be around 600 million years old, it originally would have sat at the bottom of a sea, but today it stands 348 m (1,142 ft) above the flat desertand 863 m (2,831 ft) above sea level.

Amazingly, some 2.5km's of Uluru's mass is believed to be underground.

The average geological composition of Uluru is 50% feldspar, 25-35% quartz and up to 25% rock fragments.

The Uluru formation is 3.6 km (2.2 mi) long, 1.9 km (1.2 mi) wide and has a circumference of 9.4 km (5.8 mi) covering 3.33 km² (1.29 mi²).

Uluru is an inselberg (meaning island mountain), which is a prominent isolated bump or hill that rises abruptly from widespread flat plains in a hot, dry region. Its the hard rock of a mountain left over after softer areas have eroded away. Uluru is also often called a monolith, which is more of a vague geological term.

The rock has eroded valleys and ridges and little or no vegetation. The surrounding area however, has a number of springs, waterholes, rock caves, and ancient paintings.

The striking orange-red hue color of Uluru is due to surface oxidation of its iron content, otherwise the formation would look more grey.

Uluru was originally listed on the natural World Heritage site in 1987 due to its unique geology. In 1997, it was also put on the World Heritage site list as a cultural site due to its importance to the local Aborigines. The rock is one of the few places in the world to have two listings.

Uluru is not the only rock formation in the area. Kata Tjuta also known as Mount Olga (or The Olgas) is a group of 36 large dome shaped rocks (originally being one massive monolith) located 25km (16mi) West of Uluru in the Northern Territory. The tallest of which is 546 m (1,791 ft). Uluru and Kata Tjuta are two major landmarks within the Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park.

http://www.sciencekids.co.nz/sciencefacts/earth/uluru.html

Iguaza Falls

Lying on the border of Brazil and Argentina, Iguacu Falls was born millions of years ago, likely the result of a volcanic eruption and from the slow but steady movement of tectonic plates. It was simply but aptly named “Great Falls” by local Indians.

10. According to local legend, a god planned to marry a beautiful aborigine girl named Naipí against her will. She escaped from him by fleeing with her mortal lover, Tarobá, in a hand-carved canoe on the river. The god flew into such a wild rage when he found out that he split the river into two and created all the waterfalls so that the two lovers would be condemned to an eternal fall.

9. Iguacu consists of 275 separate falls. The most impressive one is a U-shaped cataract nicknamed “The Devil’s Throat,” which has 14 falls plunging more than 350 feet.

8. Iguacu Falls is wider than Victoria Falls, which segregates Zambia from Zimbabwe in southern Africa, but Victoria is considered larger because its water curtain is less interrupted by rocky outcrops and islands.

7. Great dusky swifts can be observed plunging directly into the waterfalls; in fact, the little daredevils often nest behind the falls, seeking refuge from predators behind the curtains of falling water.

6. The rain forests surrounding Iguacu contain 2,000 species of plants.

5. There’s an often-photographed rainbow that usually appears stretched across the falls in a particular spot. Legend has it that a local shaman received a message from above that “I will show the world a marvelous thing,” but everyone waved off that notion as nonsense. So one night during a full moon, there was a random flash of lightning and—pow!—suddenly a rainbow appeared. Truth of the matter? The rainbow’s a result of the constant mist provoked by the thundering falls.

4. The only marsupial found outside Australia—the opossum—lives in the rain forests surrounding the falls.

3. During the rainy season (November to March), the rate of water plunging over the falls can reach 450,000 cubic feet per second.

2. At one point along the edge of Iguacu Falls, an observer can stand and be surrounded by 260 degrees of waterfalls.

1. Upon seeing Iguacu for the first time, First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt reportedly exclaimed “Poor Niagara!”

http://www.worldwildlife.org/blogs/good-nature-travel/posts/ten-interesting-facts-about-iguacu-falls