Under Down Under Tour – Day 4

Well here we are, up to day four of my Tassie tour!

This day we once again woke up bright and early and fought the teenagers for kitchen space so we could have our breakfast, and bid a fond farewell to Cradle Mountain.

Our first stop was the rainforest of Montezuma Falls. Another beautiful rainforest for me to enjoy! Unfortunately it was another cold day, and this time it was raining. However, the forest during the walk was beautiful, so it didn’t bother me TOO much. The walk was about 3 hours, round trip. I decided that I wanted to take my time on the walk, and fell back behind everyone so I could enjoy the sounds of the rainforest. I was also hoping I’d see a snake or some other kind of critter, and I figured that I’d have a better chance to see one if it was just me, walking quietly.

I didn’t see any little critters, but I did see a neat little abandoned mine shaft on the way to the falls. It was too dark to really see anything in there, but I just kept flashing my camera when I looked inside to make sure there wasn’t anything too dangerous waiting to pounce on me. You can see that there were a lot of webs, but nothing much else! I couldn’t see much farther than you see in the photo. Once again I was wishing for a flashlight!

I finally got to the falls about 10 minutes after everyone else had left it. I was walking pretty slow. It was beautiful! it seemed like each waterfall I saw was more spectacular than the next. This one was even more fun because I had to walk across a scary swinging bridge in order to see it:

And if you want to know what I saw when I looked down… yes, you get another foot shot! And yes, those are the Yoga Slides that let me down on Cradle Mountain!

The waterfall was huge. I really wish I could edit the colors/lightness/darkness of my pics before posting them so you’d be able to see the waterfall more clearly, but I guess you’ll have to leave it up to your imagination. I’m still learning the finer points of using my Casio Exilim.

Many years ago, there used to be a train line that went right through this forest. It passed so close to the falls that the windows of the train was actually splashed by water as it went by. That is how powerful this waterfall was!

After our rainforest walk, we headed to the Henty Sand Dunes, which were huge sand dunes that were not very easy to climb.

For some reason I didn’t think to take any pics of the sand dunes from a distance (which is weird, I wonder why?) but here is a picture I took when I was on top of one of the dunes:

I told everyone in my group that we weren’t allowed to climb on the sand dunes in New Jersey (and I think in all of the US actually) because they were protected. I started questioning myself if that was true later on though – I know I remembered there was at least one beach where there were signs telling us to stay off the dunes. New Jerseyians? Can you help me out? Was I a big liar or not?

Anyhow, it was still cold, but we spent a little bit of time running and jumping off the edge of the dunes and sliding down. Here is my jump. It was really wimpy compared to some of the guys, but it was scarier than it looked!

After the dunes, we went to our last stop of the day, Ocean Beach. It was a very pretty beach, but it was SO COLD yet again, and the Roaring Forties (what the wind coming in over that part of Australia is called) were blowing. Because of that we spent probably only 20 minutes or so there, admiring the water.

If you thought you noticed that there is someone in the water in the picture above, you are correct, and your eyes are not deceiving you! ‘Who could that crazy person be?’ you may ask. ‘Surely not someone from Karen’s group, after she was just complaining about the cold!’ You would be wrong. We did have one crazy guy who decided it would be a good idea to go for a swim in the FREEZING cold water on the FREEZING cold day. I am not exaggerating about the cold. Again… a picture tells a thousand words!

After the short stop at Ocean Beach, we headed back to our last hostel of the tour. It was so sad knowing that tomorrow after our last adventure, we’d all be going our separate ways! We decided to stay up late with some good wine and beer, and play a few card games.

We played three different games, and I had never heard of any of them. Pass the Ace, Bonsieur Monsieur, and Mao (a very fun game). Ladies and gentlemen, be prepared for tons of fun in May, because now I have three new games to play when I get back to the States!

So, after a few hours of cards and beer, we stumbled off to our beds, looking forward to the next day of fun!

Next… Day five! The Conclusion!