Mirboo North to Hiawatha

 

Hiawatha Falls

Day three dawned a lot milder than the previous night had suggested it might, although I was not immediately aware of that so I wriggled into my fleecy jacket and fleecy trousers and got out to make some coffee. I promptly decided I was way too hot.

It's a later start then anticipated because once I finally got to sleep, I slept very well and didn't wake until almost 8am. A short conversation with fellow camper Jason, actually a long-term resident of the campground, suggested that a stop at Turton Falls (my first planned stop) is probably not worth doing (I had deduced this from the weather and internet reports)

The lyrebird walk

So I headed off to the Lyrebird walk. The forest on the Lyre bird walk was quite different to that of the previous day; much more dry schlerophyl, probably because I was walking on a ridge. The forest shows evidence of quite severe fire and, in a couple of places, the devastation of the weather event of a few months ago the really strong winds which appeared of have taken down a patch of trees and left the forest a little untidy.

In places some interesting plants and fungi were to be found

a very tall club moss

Raindrops on roses - or on mushrooms!

'Big fleas have little fleas..' - mould on fungus

Beautiful Banksia

a coral fungus

Burrowing crayfish holes??  it seemed dry

Possibly and Amanita sp

The road from Mirboo North continued on through rolling landscapes, a lot of it cultivated, and then into much steeper, damper and wet Eucalypt Forest with lovely fern gullies which seemed to be dominated by Cyathea australis, the rough tree fern for which I am developing a great liking.

Rolling landscapes

For whatever reason maps decided it would not take me to Morwell Falls and I only realized this when I was a little bit passed where I needed to turn off, so I continued on towards the Gunya tree.

A small patch of old growth Eucalypts

The Gunya tree is a Eucalyptus regnans (in Tassie, a swamp gum, in Victoria, a mountain ash) recorded as outstanding for its size. Height: 46m, canopy spread of 20m and a girth of 15.7m, which is the second largest girth of any known living tree in Victoria

I don't know if I found the Gunya Tree or not but I ended up down a side road with lots of lots of Regrowth Eucalypt and a little corner that maps told me to stop at and turn into that does have a small stand of old growth gums, so I'm assuming that one of them is the Gunya Tree.

By Tassie standards, not really tall - definitely not what Jonathon's Grandpa Bob would have called a '3 looks tall tree'; by that measure, only a '2 looks tall tree'

Maybe one of these is the Gunya Tree

The side road that Google Maps took me down

I turned off the Grand Ridge Road onto the Albert River Road and was immediately disappointed with the scenery as the devastation of clearfelling came into full view, however the road wound through some patches of forestry operation, some areas that one hopes will be protected from such vandalism, and a bit of rolling rural. If anything the road was even more twisting and turning than the Grand Ridge Road. It was not much used - I passed only one other vehicle and that on a section that I would have deemed a one lane road. We managed.

The park / camping area by Hiawatha Falls

At one point a large deer crossed in front of me - I am assuming a sambar deer - almost the size of a small cow I was relieved not to have made contact with it.

Hiawatha Falls was absolutely delightful, with a lovely park and quite a nice camping area by the stream. The toilets were open - a state that had been in doubt when I was doing my homework about my trip. However I didn't feel a hundred percent comfortable to set up camp there perhaps because it was in full view of the road, albeit a little used road but also perhaps because it had obviously been churned up somewhat by big-boy four-wheel drives, so I decided to proceed to Gardenfarm farm stay, hoping that to stay there would be OK and if not, to work out how to navigate my way across to Tarra Valley to a caravan park.

My camping spot at Gardenfarm Farmstay

There was minimal phone reception on much of the route and at lunch time I had tried to call but with no answer. I managed to find a sweet spot to get a little reception and the answer that I could come straight. Bob met me and pointed me to a most suitable place: a fairly sheltered grassy spot beside a duckpond which was surrounded by blackwood trees.

I prepared dinner and relaxed with drink, then the rain started. So I battened down that hatches, adjusted the awning so it would drain and tucked up in my sleeping bag. Murphy's law says the need to pee in the middle of the night is directly proportional to the level of inconvenience involved and I swear at the height of the heavy rain I needed to sprint to the facilities. The rain eventually stopped at some stage while I was asleep and a very strong wind started. I was grateful that my awning, securely guyed, withstood the weather.