Mt Field National Park and a long alpine walk

We arrived at Mt Field National Park this morning earlier than expected. We set up and picked up a walks brochure from the visitor centre, deciding we had time to set out on a long alpine walk (something we hadn’t planned for today). The weather was also in our favour, having cleared to a mainly sunny day, a good chance to go walking in the mountains.

We drove up to Mt Dobson, in the sub-alpine section of this park and then embarked on a 6 hour hike, to the top of the mountain range, along a ridge which was full of boulders we had to climb over (tiring work). The views were great and we sat and had some lunch on the boulders. When we set out in the carpark it was only 10 degrees, and in the breeze at the top it felt quite a bit cooler than that! The view reminded us of something from Lord of the Rings. We skirted around many alpine lakes on the way down- quite beautiful with many alpine flowers. The ground was really wet and in some sections we walked over ponds of water on boardwalks.
When we finished we drove back down to the campground at the base of the park and then did another short walk, despite being pretty tired. We walked in to see Russell Falls, some of the most popular in Tassie and really pretty- the water cascading down in several thin layers, a bit like a veil. From there we trekked on a little further to see Horseshoe Falls, another nice spot.
Back to the caravan then and a well-earned and needed hot shower and dinner. Then we set out on the short walk to Russell Falls again in the hope of seeing some nocturnal animals (the national park’s guide suggests it). It was about 9pm and we saw LOTS of pademelons, hopping around everywhere, plus lots of possums. We saw a bandicoot, and a more unusual and rare banded bandicoot (he had brown stripes across his bottom and was very cute). We were hoping to spot a quoll, but no such luck tonight. Maybe tomorrow night.

It’s about bedtime now (Adam has already crashed). We have another long hike planned for tomorrow in the nearby Southwest National Park. The weather here is so cool it's hard to remember it's summer. We feel like we had summer in winter when we were at the top of the country, and now we are down south and it feels like winter in summer. :-) It's really refreshing and nice though- good for walking too.

All is going well generally, although we are both pretty much over living in the caravan. Haven’t killed each other yet though, and we are nearly home, so we think we have survived the better part of a year living in this tiny box together pretty well!

More news from us soon.
Love Emma & Adam xx