The Land of Giants

Our last two stops have been in some of Tasmania's world renowned, beautiful rain forests.

First we stopped at Corinna. This way out West, remote spot is called the "Gateway to the Tarkine".  It sits on the shores of the Pieman River. This is a very old and very beautiful spot. We have found photos have a hard time capturing the fluorescent intensity of the green in these forests. Every surface is covered in moss, rocks, tree trunks, the earth, everything.

When we arrived at Corinna it was wet. It continued to be wet on and off, pouring and then easing. We still went bush walking but a 2 hr walk would take us 3 hrs because we were navigating vast quantities of squelchy ankle deep mud. I really wanted to get out on the water and kayak down the river. There are beautiful locations you can get to by boat. Nath the far more experiences paddler of the two of us advised against it. It was too cold and wet and he worried that the kids would get way too cold when wet out on the water.

Our campsite was stunning, overlooking the river and historic town. It was powerless and only had $2 for 3 mins showers which with a family of 4 is expensive and not long enough to wash off all the mud. We are usually happy with unpowered sites, but in this case it was difficult to dry everything off without the heater.

And then came.... The LEECHES. Now I had wrongly assumed, that as we were traveling in winter, that we were unlikely to see any of these nightmarish creatures. Not so... Tilly was the first to discover a "little worm" on her hand (she then woke from her sleep later that day to be covered in blood with a big fat leech crawling across her pillow from her ear where it had been sucking her sweet blood for the past 3 hrs). Ollie and I have had many a leech bite before (we seem to be high on the leech delicacy list) and both quickly checked ourselves, removed a few and attractively touched our socks into our pants. I can deal with most creepy crawlies and unfortunately leeches seem to love the same beautiful natural spaces that I do. I have to accept them, but I don't have to like them and I definitely do not.

So Corinna is a super beautiful place, we just happen to have an ultra wet, muddy, leech ridden time!

0Next stop was Mt Field National Park. This is somewhere we have visited before but were keen to see again, as it is super beautiful (apologies again for the sideways photos, something is mucking up and I don't have the internet to fix it! Will fix when I get home).

We stayed at the national park campground, which is nestled in between a river and a forest. We had power, water, showers, washing machines and dryers! HEAVEN!!! We did 5 loads of washing the first day we were there. You should of seen the mud and sand coming out of the washing machine pipe!!

This camp was something special to me. It was like a turning point. Not only did the rain stop but the SUN CAME OUT!! Spring Sprung. We basked in the sunshine, walked through some of the most magical rain forest, seeing cascades, waterfalls and the 2nd tallest trees in the world.

These swamp gums are MASSIVE and full of such history. They can stand up to 100m tall and they make you feel just tiny. They take up to 400 years to grow this big. They are truly ancient beings. Interestingly, when near them I get such a sense of their strength, their solid groundedness and I feel that I could be safe and sheltered in their roots.

In the car we have been listening to Roald Dahl's book The BFG. The kids are fascinated with the concepts of Giants. It was perfect timing to get a sense of things that are massive and far far bigger than us (or even Daddy who in their eyes is the tallest of all). We really did feel like we were walking in a land of Giants and were happy to feel small and insignificant in comparison to their magnificience.

On the night of the Blue Moon, we took our torches and walked up to the falls. We turned off the lights and let our eyes adjust. We had the full moon above us, so it didn't take long. Then we crept along in eager anticipation of the first sighting of glow worms. Within a meter we started to see them. Then littered all along the sides were hundreds  of little phospherent  dots. The kids were rather delighted to discover that the bit that was glowing was actually a type of worm poo!

This process of getting out and doing something after dinner was wonderful. We have decided to do this more often. Have an earlier dinner and then get out for a walk. It was such a wonderful way to spend the evening, deleted that horrible whiny time and gave us a different experience.

Now all clean and washed, lungs full or rainforest grandness were off the the beach! Sunshine follow us!!!