Montezuma Falls

3rd December

Day two, and some of the group opted for a cruise down the Gordon river.

The rest of us had a walk to Tasmania’s highest waterfall, Montezuma Falls, within the ancient rainforests of the Tarkine/takayna. This is the second largest temperate rainforest in the world, the largest being in British Colombia, Canada. - Unbelievably, this rain forest is not yet protected and people are campaigning for it to get world heritage status. 

This is Australia's only native winter deciduous tree, the deciduous beech, found exclusively in Tasmania's cool, high-altitude forests, where its crinkly leaves turn stunning shades of gold, yellow, and red in autumn before dropping for winter. 

At the end of this video you can see the leaves of the Sassafras plant, native to Tasmania, which is used to make MDMA. It used to be an ingredient in root beer but not any more.

The walk was relaxing apart from a swinging bridge, which gave great views of the forest & waterfall, but was pretty scary as it was very wobbly!

Above (back) Joe, Ramon, Ilse, (front) Fabienne & Vanessa.

At the coast we explored the immense Henty sand dunes and walk along Tasmania’s longest stretch of sand at Ocean Beach.

Joe raced a few up the sand dune. Of course he won! It was quite steep, the sand blown over time by the strong westerly antarctic winds, but the air was fresh & clean!

The brown colour in the water is not dirt but tannin from the scrub plants.

Later, back in Strahan we went to a local play, like a pantomime. 'The Ship That Never  Was'. It was really good & very funny. The story was of some convicts who escaped from Sarah Island on a ship.

40% of the British convicts wee sent to Tasmania & re-offenders were sent to Sarah Island where conditions were so harsh, some committed suicide rather than go there. It was described as 'Hell on Earth' with hard work, harsh punishment & conditions, bad food & disease. Also, the weather on the west coast is bad, with 300 days of rain a day on average.

We were told the story of Alexander Pearce. A convict who escaped from Sarah Island with 3 others. After surviving the ocean they had to trek through dense forest and when they ran out of food they made an agreement that the first to fall asleep would be eaten. One by one they fell asleep & Alexander was the last to remain. He was captured, but when he told the story they didn't believe him, thinking the others were still at large. He later escaped again & was found, bent over his young companion, eating him, so they had to believe his story and sentenced him to death.

Later - rather than eat each other - we had Fish n chips at a restaurant & a very pleasant walk back to the hostel. (Nicole & Ilse above)