Not a huge amount of wandering on our last trip up the west coast. There was a bit, as much as can be possible at times with small children and not so small children. This time we really had no plans at all, other than head up to Rosebery and crash for a few nights with some mates. The only definite was to get to Strahan, to capture portals and make fields, although I didn’t get the keys from New Norfolk to make the fields, so it was just links.. Nevermind, and you probably have zero idea of what I am talking about anyway!
I wish I had more time to road trip the west, it really is by far my favourite Tasmanian area. Rainforesty and montaney, cold, misty and rainy. I always feel like I am in a different world and I never want to leave. Maybe when I grow up I will find a way to go and live up there. I could research something, or photograph something, or just learn some really awesome survival skills and spend my days trying not to die…
For now though, we only had five days to hang out. We adventured around Rosebery, through the forest in the middle of the town to Stitt Falls, which was a really easy little track according to Dale… I guess it was, unless you were four and five and weren’t the best at navigating steep, muddy tracks next to very fast running water.. Ha. We didn’t l
ose any of them though, so that’s always a bonus. I’ve been up to Rosebery a fair few times and never actually wandered around the town. Heaps of awesome fungi hanging about by the roadsides and little tracks off here an
d there. The best was it was raining and muddy, and it was so much easier to just walk the kids home rather than try to strip them down and de muddify them before putting them back in a car. Bonus.
Sunday ended up a pretty much nothing day due to the amount of wine that was consumed the night prior. We ended up an old house at about 2am trying to take photos. Suffice to say it wasn’t very productive. Had an interesting chat to a bloke on his way home from the pub… Nice guy, just got out of prison for aggravated robbery or something similar, invited us to go and have a few beers with him, but it was late and we declined. I recall telling him to not rob anyone aggravatedly again because that’s not cool, he had a laugh told us he was aggravatedly robbed first and eventually went on his way. I can’t recall the entire conversation but no doubt it would have involved me saying possibly idiotic things. It was fun though. It was like being 16 again (18 if my folks are reading this) drinking beers and wandering around in the dark playing games. Like the time we were playing wars in North Hobart with big planks of wood, then our mate Paul impaled himself on a guy’s fence. Guy comes out of his house with a baseball bat and we all run off thinking we were about to die. Funny times. Oh and then there were the cops who stopped us and asked us what we were doing… “just playing wars… we shoot each other with our wood and when you are hit you have to stay still for a few minutes then you can go again”… Apparently our story was so ridiculous that they were happy with that and let us carry on… Anyway, our night-time stroll in Rosebery wasn’t that eventful, although I guess it could have been…
What else did we do… We went to Strahan, checked out Hogarth Falls, caught more portals and looked for fungi. Went for a stroll in the mud and the pouring rain up the ‘Scenic Route’, which is just a 4wd track off the Murchison highway somewhere. No buses allowed apparently. Would love to get back there again without kids. Not that having the kids there wasn’t awesome. They loved it, hunting for zombies and elves in the forest and generally just exploring and falling over everything. Although it is an amazing little section of rainforest. Gorgeous old Myrtles and Leatherwood and more moss, lichen and liverworts than you could poke a stick at! A beautiful thick, high canopy which blocks out pretty much all the light, but wide and open underneath, and that smell… That classic rainforest smell. I tend to associate it with rotting myrtle, but I’m not sure. Sometimes I can’t tell if it is a really nice sweet smell, or an awful rotting smell. Either way I associate with it rainforest and soil and it’s awesome.
Naturally I took a few photos, although not as many as usual. For one it was a bit too rainy a lot of the time. Even with my sticky tape and sandwich bag rain cover for my camera it was just too soggy. I was also just happy wandering and playing and not worrying about taking photos. My fungi highlight find was Chlorovibrissea melanchlora. That’s the green balls in the photos above. I can’t take credit for the find, Dale found that one, but I was super happy to see them! Not a super common one, and crikey they are hard to spot. They probably stand about 1cm tall, maybe a touch more and blend in beautifully with its surrounds. Charlie was rather happy with his fungi find too. So much so that he insisted we take the stick home because he loves to collect sticks and this was even better…
Henty Sand Dunes were freaking amazing! We were running out of light so only got to the top of one and didn’t get to explore a whole lot. I was lucky to get to the top. Through the hysterically laughing and sinking in the sand I ran out of puff pretty quick. The kids never of course, they found their respective sized dunes and couldn’t get enough of it. You think of the West Coast and you immediately think of thick temperate rainforest with cold, windy montane areas scattered amongst the higher altitudes, then you see the desert. Yeah ok, not really desert, it was still cold and a little windy, but far out it was rad. Definitly on the list of places to go back and visit with more time, more lenses and a tripod…
I always like to take a different road back to home. So this time we went via Burnie! As you do when you are driving south, go north first… Dale had to be in Burnie for the day anyway, so we tagged along and hit up the Burnie city park for a play. Did plan on checking out Fern Glade, but it was still shut due to storm damage, and I was screwed so we headed home. Took the coast road from Penguin through the Ulverstone. Holy bananas, it’s friggin gorgeous along there! I need about a years worth of just driving from one little place to another to be satisfied and spend enough time everywhere I go. Although having said that a year wouldn’t be enough anyway…
As always, thankyou to my Rosebery hosts… The Japanesey mushrooms were divine, the roast lamb was excellent and the wine was great…
