Torn between 3 and 4 stars for Wandering Trout.
It's in a good location for exploring the area. Mole Creek is a large enough town to have some services, but close enough to Cradle Mountain and caves to make access easy. Plenty to see and do within an hour or so drive.
Wandering Trout is an older property that's been done up pretty nicely. Not brand new, but still pretty good.
The rooms are upstairs, spacious and attractive, with a small ensuite. The bed was firm, but comfortable.
Our room was heated by a pair of heat panels mounted on the wall. They are radiant heater panels, not fan-forced, so you don't get instant warmth from them.
These got very hot (be warned) and got the room quite warm - eventually. Unfortunately, they weren't turned on when we arrived.
This was our biggest negative, as the room was frosty cold when we checked in late afternoon, and it takes a loooong time to get the room warm. It wasn't until sometime the next morning that it was comfortably warm.
This might have been a mistake by the staff who didn't remember to turn it on early enough to give us a warm room on arrival.
There's no electric blanket on the bed either, so bed was cold, cold, cold when we got in.
There was an annoying knocking/tapping noise at random during the evening/night that we suspect may have been water pipes knocking against the frame. Seemed to stop very late at night, so didn't disturb us too much.
Toilet pan in our ensuite wasn't fixed down firmly to the floor, so tipped if you leant over to the side.
These are (mostly) relatively minor issues that can be easily fixed.
There is a shared kitchenette/dining area with 2 tables with chairs, small fridges, toaster, kettle, sink, crockery and cutlery. BYO bread and butter and spread, but assorted teas and a coffee plunger with beans and grinder is provided.
It was cold in there, but we still enjoyed our breakfasts.
They supply a container of muesli, a tub of yoghurt, and a small bottle of milk per person per day for breakfast.
The milk is beautiful. It's organic, cream-on-top (not homogenised) milk in a 250mm glass bottle that is a miniature of the milk bottles we had when I was a kid many moons ago. I haven't had milk this tasty since I was a kid probably.
There's also a lounge area upstairs with DVDs, a projector and screen, some books and lounge chairs, but it was pretty cold in there too. We didn't use it.
Staff were very friendly and welcoming. Downstairs is a public bar area with kitchen. They have a reasonable selection of meals in the evening, but we only tried the smashed potatoes and garlic flat bread. Pretty tasty.
They also have a range of beers brewed in-house on tap and in cans. Really, really good beers. A small selection of wines and spirits rounds out the bar. Probably not the place to go if you only drink VB or Bundy and Coke, but I'd suggest getting a bit more adventurous.
If you're looking for a hot chocolate or latte or something similar to warm up, you'll be disappointed. They can't cater for that.
On Friday nights they have live music. Don't remember the name of the woman who performed when we were there, but she was good, and it was a really nice atmosphere.
An unexpected bonus was seeing the platypus in the creek out the back. Never seen a platypus in the wild before, and this one put on quite a display for us as he/she went hunting for a feed.
That was one of the highlights of our whole visit.
Overall, we enjoyed our stay at Wandering Trout, and would be happy to recommend it, as long as you come prepared for the few negatives...
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