Day 10 (16-Mar-15) Hobart - Mt. Field National Park (225 km)

Our last day – and so not a moment to lose! With everything packed we headed west out of Hobart for Mount Field National Park. There we again linked a number of separate trails into a single route that introduced us to the 2^nd largest tree species on the planet! The Tasmanian swamp gum tree Eucalyptus Regnans is actually the tallest hardwood tree in the world, and also the tallest flowering tree in the world. Only the Sequoia redwoods of California, which are softwoods, are taller. The tallest swamp gum ever found was an astounding 98m high! The walk through this forest was probably the most visually stunning experience of the entire holiday, and only a few other treks come to mind that equal or exceed the majesty of this place.

And it was not just the two of us that were left with such an indelible impression. French explorer Bruni D’Entrecasteaux first sighted Tasmania in 1792, and was so mesmerised by these giant forests that he wrote the following entry in the ships diary:

“…trees of an immense height and proportionate diameter, their branchless trunks covered with evergreen foliage, some looking as old as the world;

“closely interlacing in an almost impenetrable forest, they serve to support others which, crumbled with age, fertilised the soils with their debris;

“nature in all her vigor, and yet in a state of decay, seems to offer to the imagination something more picturesque and more imposing than the sight of this same nature bedecked by the hand of civilised man.

“Wishing only to preserve her beauties we destroy her charm, we rob that power which is hers alone, the secret of preserving in eternal age eternal youth”

I could not hope to be as articulate, so it seems fitting to close this account of our holiday to Tasmania with Bruni’s sentiments. This island is indeed a wild and rustic place, teeming with wildlife, and home to an immense diversity of landscapes, flaura and fauna. Thankfully, the people of Tasmania have come to realise that only Mother Nature, not mankind, can preserve this unique habitat for generations to come, and so have entrusted much of the land back to Her stewardship through creation of numerous national parks. We can only hope that the timber industry does not find a way to access their abundant resources and denude the very essence of these fabulous places.