Adventure Before Dementia – Tasmania West, Day One

Tasmanian Safaris Claire picked me up last so I met my companions for the week in the van.
Frank and Nancy retired older couple from New York State, Micheala or now known as ‘Potato’ a name she got stuck with after explaining why she dyes her hair. She is a Pilot for Tiger Air. Siobhan engineer and John AKA John Thumb (because his thumb is in some of my pictures!!) a driver semi retired. The latter three all Australian.
I warmed instantly to Claire (Willow as Claire doesn’t suit her) our guide, she is a wonderful naturalist, plants person and Eco warrior. I think she liked me too as I knew a good few of the plants and their families and genuinely interested in what she was telling us.
First we drove out to Mount Field National Park for a short walk around the rain forest.
It was hot and sticky but this was drier than it should have been for a temperate rain forest. There was also the smell of smoke in the air from a forest fire some distance away. It was a gentle walk to look at Horseshoe Falls, Russel Falls and Lady Barron Falls. The Eucalyptus, Blackwoods and Myrtle Beech dominate. However where it is damp giant tree ferns (Dicksonia) are king. I have one in my garden at home and I think its only grown a centimetre in five years, here they are colossal.

There are a lot of introduced species of animals and plants that the Tasmanian authorities are trying to eradicate. We saw one of the invaders, the bumble bee (Bombus terrestris) I couldn’t bring myself to harm it.
Of the birds Willow identified for me, Yellow Tailed Black Cockatu was weird with an odd flight and its call was positively prehistoric I was beginning to feel like I’d stepped into Jurassic Park. We also saw Sulfur Crested Cockatu and Tasmanian Scrubwren (this looks like a sort of tit).
We then drove to our first camp in the bush near to Lake St Clair. This was basic (with no washing facilities), beautiful and a thousand meters above sea level.

Willow set about making our dinner and I wandered into what would be equivalent to heath land to us, where I was harassed by the ‘chirring’ of a bird that sounded like our Nightjar. Willow thought it was a honey eater and in the end I had Willow obsessed about it too, trying to identify it on an app. We had no luck and I’ve recorded it in the hope of using it as a chat up line in the next national park, I think Willow will have more luck on that score.