2004/03 Tasmania loop - Mount Field |
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Thursday March 18th
We took advantage of the campground’s laundry and then headed south towards Mount Field 
national park. The high country here has many large lakes, mainly reservoirs feeding Tasmania’s hydroelectric systems. The sky looked like something out of a science fiction movie, an odd shade of blue with a low layer of black clouds and a high white layer, both moving quickly and in different directions.
We needed to fill up with diesel, and found a town called Tallaleah on the map that looked a likely spot, though I didn’t remember it from our last trip. It was a short way off the highway, and immediately seemed odd. It had large, well-maintained houses, but they looked wrong: no people, no cars, and no kids’ toys. Then we saw that the campground was located on the school sports field. Where were the kids? When combined with the weird sky, this was a spooky spot.
We found out later that the town had been built for the workers constructing the power stations. Then it was put up for sale, and a family bought it and had converted it into a summer resort. It was late in the season, so the only remaining action was at the lodge/café/petrol station. This building overlooked the pipelines that fed the water from the lakes down to the power station’s turbines. There were signs warning people from walking or skate boarding on the pipelines. As the pipes were nearly vertical, you’d have thought this wasn’t necessary, but I guess there’s always somebody who’ll try it.
From there it was a pretty drive down through the farms of the Ouse Valley to Hamilton. This was a little out of our way but Sandie was on the scent of a Devonshire Tea, and we found it at Glen Clyde House, coming away with even more bits of wood and pottery. By now the sky was even weirder, but the locals didn’t seem to be taking any notice so it must be normal for the area.
Mount Field has a number of beautiful waterfalls, the most famous being 
Russell Falls. After setting up camp, we had just enough time to walk under the tree ferns and massive swamp gums to the falls. The falls were pretty, but there was little water flowing. I’d like to see them sometime in full flood.
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Mount Field (5.28) |
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As usual, the forest around the river was alive with pademelons. As they love the darker spots they are hard to see well or to photograph. Back at the campground we 
watched the weird sky slowly transform into a red and gold sunset.
Friday March 19th
I took an early morning run up the track that leads to the backcountry behind the mountain. Apart from the cockatoos, everything was still and quiet until I heard what sounded like a distant waterfall. Then it sounded like Niagara was just around the corner. Then the trees above me started thrashing together in a violent windstorm, with bits flying off and crashing to the ground. As the trees are well over a hundred feet high this was a bit worrying. There was no wind down where I was. Then all became still and quiet again. This happened a couple more times before I turned around to run back down. Down at the campground all was quiet. They hadn’t experienced any of this.
Later that day we drove up the same track, narrow and one-way in places, but reasonably smooth. The track crossed Wombat Moor and ended at Lake Dobson. Up there we had the same screaming wind that I’d heard on my run. It was difficult to get out of the camper without having the door ripped off. I had to struggle to get to the lake edge, and then I just dropped out of the wind, and had a pleasant hike around the lake, and up to Eagle Tarn. The forest had some large groves of pandani tucked away in the hollows and protected from the wind. When I emerged from the trail back at the parking lot I had the same struggle with the door and the 
wind.
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Wombat Moor (5.15) |
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I also squished my way across Wombat Moor to a thin line of trees that struggled for existence between the water of the moor and the icy winds of the ridges. Under the trees was a beautiful mosaic of green celery ferns and silvery pineapple grass
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Barron Falls (2.29) |
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It was too windy to cook up there so we returned to the visitor centre for a welcome curry, and then set out for one last hike up to Lady Barron Falls, and then through the forest of swamp gums, some over 250 feet high. The trail ends at Horseshoe Falls, which sits just above the more famous Russell Falls. It’s a small falls but it’s created this green grotto under the giant trees.
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Horizontal Falls (3.56) |
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Luckily for us, the trail up from Russell had been closed all week for repairs, so we 
had the grotto to ourselves. Even luckier, it had just been opened up when the workers finished for the weekend, and we were relieved not to have to retrace our steps for five miles in the dark.