We are lucky to be surrounded by beautiful natural areas in the north west of Tasmania. Each week I will try to feature a place we enjoy visiting.
Dip Forest Reserve is only about 40 minutes west of us and inland a teeny bit. Its actually a lovely drive through the farming country to reach it.
It’s beautiful walking through the tall man ferns – all lush green. They grow at about 1cm per year, so some of these have been around for an awfully long time! And after a gruelling three minute walk along a flat path you reach “The Big Tree” (Someone with a creative turn of mind obviously came up with the name)
This 400 year old giant is a Browntop Stringybark, or Eucalypt Oblique. At a height of 62 metres (203ft) and an impressive 17mt girth, it really makes you feel a little bit small and insignificant!!
Somehow over the years, it has survived the fires and logging and is a wonderful place to take visitors. It’s good for the soul to stroll along and look up at the younger trees and man ferns that loom above you.
A walk down the long staircase to the bottom of Dip Falls is the next place to go. Its a pretty steep descent and a real bugger to walk back up again, but it is totally worth the little extra effort!
The falls themselves can change remarkably over the different seasons. Sometimes there is no more than a trickle, and at other times a deluge!
About ten minutes after the above photo was taken I managed to do a really ungraceful pirouette off a slippery rock and spun myself down to fall into the (at the time) raging Dip River.
It. Was. Cold.
I took my camera for a swim as well which happily survived its dunking. I bravely proceeded with the rest of the touring with friends in wet squelching undies. Not recommended.
Autumn brings out a variety of simply gorgeous fungi of all shapes and colours. One day I am going to go and visit Dip Falls at the right time when I am not with tourists and spend some special time with my macro lens, a tripod and go nuts!
The curling ferns and varieties of mosses are fascinating to see if you have the time to stop long enough and really take notice of your surrounds.
Hopefully you have enjoyed the first “Friday’s Footprints”
Have a super weekend
Cheers
