Camille’s Big Adventure

  My final destination with Quentin was the Gordon dam. We drove an hour from Mt. Field west into the mountainous western region of Tasmania where we stopped along the way to climb a mountain (The needles) and do a few smaller walks. The needles was a steep climb up to some marble (?) stones that jutted out from the tops of the mountains. Looking almost placed on top of the buttonwood fields. One of the walks was called the Creepy Crawly walk. It was a beautiful short walk along a boardwalk in a dense nothofagus forest. The trees were so large and dense that very little light reaches the forest floor. Everything was covered in mosses and mushrooms the diversity of which I have never seen before. I saw orange mushrooms that seemed to burst from the dense moss like flames. Bright red mushrooms that looked like cherries along the path. Mossy green mushrooms hid below logs and small chestnut brown mushrooms lined the trunks of trees. A pale fungus looked like coral reef at the base of a tr

 After Maria island I hit the road to Mt Field to meet back up with Quentin for a few days. I arrived well after dark but was delighted to find a roaring fire to take the edge off the 0 degree (32 F) weather and warm dinner of potatoes and sausage. We caught up on our adventures for the past few days over the fire. In the morning we decided to make it an easy day and did a series of short (40 minutes to 3 hour) walks in the lower part of the national park. The forest had lots of magnificent 70m (210ft) eucalyptus trees that towered over the forest with short fern trees underneath. We saw a bunch of beautiful waterfalls and enjoyed a leisurely day. When we returned to our camp in the afternoon we were approached by a man, who asked us about our day and future plans in a very leading way. I hesitantly answered his questions until I discovered he and his wife were looking for a ride up the mountain the next day. They are in a motor home and the road to the alpine area is to

  My next day started fantastic. I was the only guest at my bnb and after a nice FaceTime chat with my parents I went to breakfast where my host made me pumpkin soup and homemade bread. It was magnificent. I packed up and headed for Maria Island (pronounced Mariah). I parked my car at the docks and got on my ferry across for a few nights. The island is absolutely crawling with wombats which is delightful. Even on the middle of the day I saw probably 40. I put my stuff in my cabin have a nice chat with my neighbors and headed for my first hike up a nearby mountain. I was the only one hiking it this afternoon and after a tough hike and scramble I made it to the top for an incredible view were I was able to look over the cliffs watching the fan tails flitter, the skinks dance, and   the waves look minuscule far below. I sat on the top of the mountain reflecting on all my good fortune over the past months and all the joy Ive experienced and looking forward to much more. I headed down an ho