Mount Fields National Park - Our First Walks In The Forest

So, we had managed to drive our wobbly camper van to the camp site of the Mount Fields National Park, which is relatively close to Hobart - about a couple of hours drive, and we settled ourselves in and connected our 220 volt cable so that we could use all the amazing gadgets in our camper and settled back to enjoy our first night away from our hotel in Hobart..

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When we finally awoke at about 8 am the following morning, we decided to start our day with the joy of a hot shower, which is exactly what we did.   All good so far.

We then decided that it would be a good idea for us to have a go at one of the walks offered in the forests all around us, so off we set on what was said to be a 6 km walk encompassing three waterfalls and a load of trees.

The general forest was superb, semi-tropical in nature, full of tree ferns and similar soggy ground plants, and also the most incredible gum trees, apparently the tallest flowering trees in the world (as opposed ot the California Redwoods which are pine trees, and thus not flowering, they have cones instead).    But these superb trees in this forest, reaching heights of up to 99 meters (over 300 feet for you who don't yet use meters) were astounding to gaze up at, and impossible to photograph as they were simply too big.    If you can imagine a normal gum tree, but about 250 feet tall, everything in the normal proportions, well that is what these monsters looked like.    Perfectly normal trees, just absurdly big.

The forest was a delight to mooch along in, nothing too strenuous for a couple of ancients such as us, almost no other walkers, so it was easy to completely lose oneself in the calm and gentle atmosphere of the forest.  A total pleasure.

And as the finishing touch, we had the three waterfalls, all of which were simply superb, not huge, but going like the clappers and making that wonderful noise that waterfalls make.

Then that night another joy was given to us, herds of a small version of Kangaroo, known as a Pademelon (why on earth they have this name is beyond me), which are basically a fox terrier sized kangaroo, with black fur, suddenly appeared grazing all over the place, and being a part of Australia, of course quite a few Possums also wandered around the place.

Many of the Pademelons had babies, either peering out of their pouches or if a bit bigger, dashing about the place feeding themselves happily…   A great sight to behold all in all.

And that was our day in the National Park…  More to follow in due time.