Cold comfort

As we moved on from Graham and Julia's we passed through Hobart and south again down to Huon and beyond. We had intended to bush camp down at Cockle Creek, but when we got there not only was it very crowded and haphazard, but extremely cold. At 8 degress C, (45f), we decided it was too cold for us, so set a short way back up the Huan highway to Dover, where we were fortunate to find a cabin. And a good job we did- it poured down most of the night, so it would have been rather unpleasant for us in the roof tent.

Passing through a small hamlet called Franklin, we came across a lockup, a jail with two cells. Look closely at the open door and you may see the iron bars inside.
Built in 1889, it was one of many in the area used by the local police to keep miscreants on capture and before sentence, and indeed was still in use until 1980 when a new police station was built.

Today we drove up to Geeveston, named after a family whose father and son perished while on a fossicking expedition in the Hartz mountains, just above the town. They were caught after a sudden change in the weather, and died from hypothermia in the 1880s. There is an interesting Forest Information Centre in the town, showing how the forest has shaped the fortunes of the area, and throughout the town are many life sized wooden sculptures of local characters of the 19th and 20th centuries.







We made our way up into the Hartz Mountains National Park, some 25 Kms above the town, and walked some of the many trails nearby. There are relics of the early logging days, including a steam engine that ran on wooden rails hauling logs out of the forest.

The views were tremendous, despite the clouds we could see for many miles over the roof of the forest, and came across quite a few streams and waterfalls coursing down the mountains.

On the highest walk that we did, close to the summit of Mount Hartz, we passed through a plateau sculpted by a glacier, with many lovely wildflowers and a glacial lake. I am at a loss to understand how these flowers can survive in this climate, it is about 5 deg c up here and this is mid summer!

But apart from the weather it was a good day walking, much of the south and west of Tasmania can only be reached on foot or horseback, so it is a true wilderness. We only touched a small part of it, but it is possible to imagine the remainder from what we have seen.