What a fab day! We had two lovely walks in the rain forest and in snow in the mountains. I’ve taken photos of lots of beautiful things… waterfalls, lakes, lichen and fungi, and twinkling stars. Then we stayed in a cabin in the mountains with no electricity or bathroom but a lovely hot woodburner. And a possum came to visit us! Ace!
Rachel dropped Thomas at school (Lexie is poorly 😦 ), while Richard got our ‘camping’ kit ready… food, pots, pans and cutlery, sleeping bags and duvets, lamps etc. Then we set off for Mount Field National Park. The first walk we did was the Three Falls Walk, which took us a couple of hours. The walk was through temperate rainforest, past the Russell Falls, Horseshoe Falls, Lady Baron Falls and some very tall trees, including some which were blackened in a bush fire. I enjoyed taking some long exposure shots of the falls, and using my macro lens to take pictures of different fungi.
After this, we collected the keys for the Government Cabin that we were staying in, another 16 kilometres up the mountain into the park. Rachel had to get home to collect Thomas from school but came to the cabin with us to see what it was like. It was great, with two large rooms, one with bunk beds and the other with a kitchen sink, table and chairs and a wood burner. John lit the fire while Richard put the kettle on and we made cheese butties for lunch.
The toilet was a compost loo in a small hut across the path, and there were a couple of cabins either side of ours. The views from the cabins were lovely. After lunch, I swept the floor and tidied up, while John chopped logs and Richard ran Rachel back down to the Mount Field visitor centre where we’d left the other car.
When Richard was back, we went for another walk, this time around Lake Dobson. The lake is small but perfectly formed and surrounded by lovely trees and plants. I loved the section through the Pandani grove, which was full of unusual palm-like plants that are found only in Tasmania.
The plants up in the mountains were very different from in the rainforest in the valley, but still beautiful. Also, there wasn’t much lichen in the rainforest but there was lots up at Lake Dobson.
From the lake, we followed the Urquhart Track uphill and there was much more snow. To me, it looked quite strange against the Pandani. We then took a road uphill to the Mount Field ski resort, although we didn’t get as far as the ski fields, nor did we see anyone else around. The views were amazing though.
Back at the cabin, we had a beer and relaxed for a bit. At dusk, we went to see if there were any animals around but didn’t spot anything. Then, when Richard went out to the loo he spotted a possum. One particularly cheeky one came into the hall of our cabin. He even had a nibble on my camera strap!
After dinner… sausage butties and beans that Richard cooked for us… we went outside to see the stars. I have honestly never seen so many so clearly, nor have I ever found them so easy to photograph. With no light pollution at all, the sky was stunning. We also managed to find some more wildlife, including a wombat and several possums. It was fab to see them in the wild.
Back inside, we had a cup of tea, then got tucked up in bed. It was pretty warm with the heat from the wood burner and I think we all dozed off quite soon.
Ramblings 
Leave a Reply