Tassie day 5

Today was an early start... Up at 5:30 to start the second 1/2 of my trip, up the west coast of Tasmania, spending a lot of time in the cradle mountain NP. First stop was in Mt. Field NP seeing a couple water falls, Russell falls was great, and also saw the biggest trees in Tasmania (perhaps all of Australia) on the tall trees walk through very old growth forests (+2000 yrs old). Next we headed to lake st clair, had a hike before lunch, got to know Anne a little better, a german girl who was travelling after being a nanny in Sydney for the past few months. This hike also beginning my frustration with the platypus!!! (still elusive!). Hiking, over lynch and on the bus I was starting to meet and make friends with my new group. So far I know Anna(Germany), dan(uk), tina and amanda(WA,WI =USA), there's also a couple from the UK, a couple Chinese girls, a girl from the Czech republic, a Swiss girl and a few japanese ladies. And carl, our crazy goofy dreadlocked bus driver... Much more interactive than erica (who happens to be his girl friend) so far I feel very lucky to get another fun group! After a lunch of tuna salad wraps we hit the road... Weather on the west coast is much more random, much more wet but have had luck with hikes, it did drizzle but cleared. Made a stop at the franklin river, in franklin gordon NP for a great hike and lots of exploring... The franklin is one of the last rivers in the world that starts and ends untouched entirely in a national park, pure mountain spring water!!! No human contamination, no farm runoff, no dams, very clean... In fact a few people filled up their water bottles, however it's stained brown from the tannins in the roots of the button grass that grow in the area. It's very damp here causing tons of different mushrooms to pop up everywhere. Our next stop was a beer run in the ugliest town in Australia, Queenstown. It was an old mining town that's refining process back in the day released toxic gas and created acid rain killing all of the surrounding old growth forest and wildlife, leaving the ground posioned! they said until recently not even a single blade of grass would grow (infact their footy field is still gravel). We stopped for the night in Strahan, a sleepy fishing village. Had a Aussie/Asian dinner, beers, goon and finished the night with ferris bulers day off. We all were very tuckered out, to bed by 11


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