Had a lovely forest walk today, really really nice. The Huon Valley is about an hour and a half away from Hobart, and we stopped off at the Big Tree Lookout on the way there. If you can guess by the name, it was a little nook where you could go and look at....drum roll....a big tree!!! It's a big swamp gum tree that is actually dying off but is the sole survivor of three fires that happend over the past century. It's about 87 metres tall but is apparently shrinking over the years. Apparently old trees are protected if they are above 84 metres in height but they predict that this tree will shrink to under that in the next few years and so they're not sure what will happen to it after that.

After the BTL, we went on the the Tahune Forest where there are several walks you can do, as well as some eagle hang gliding! I quite fancied the eagle hang gliding, but we only had 2 and a half hours there and I really wanted to do all the walks so had to give it a miss. It was probably terribly expensive as well and I did see one person doing it, and it didn't look all that exciting! You basically were in a little hang glider that followed a cable down over the river and over some trees. It could have been quite a good ride I guess, but I'll never know unless I go back!
First I did the Huon Pine walk which was only a little walk through forest but it had lots of little signs up showing you the different types of trees. Huon pine and Sassafraz are trees only found in Tasmania, and Huon pine needs quite special conditions to grow. It's also a very slow growing tree, growing only a milimetre every year!!! 1 milimetre a year!! Thus, the trees are extremely precious and a tree that's about 2 metres in height could be about several hundred years old. It's also the only wood that has it's own natural oils and so doesn't rot in water . It has a really lovely smell too :)

Then I went off to do the Tahune air walk which is a series of walkways up above the trees. I haven't a clue how high up you are (something else to look up!) but you go up about 180-odd steps I think and you get absolutely amazing views over the trees and over the river. There's also a counterbalance bit where you hang right over the river and you can see where the river Picton and the river Huon meet. Tahune is an aboriginal word for 'where two rivers meet' so it's obviously a very apt name :D
It's just really lovely and you feel quite disorientated walking amongst the tree tops as you get such a different perspective.

After that I decided to find where the swinging bridges were! These are two bridges that swing over the river. I was looking forward to it until I stepped on them as they do sway quite a bit and I only weigh 47 kilos!! However, the view from them is really nice - once you get over the wobbly sensation! There's no danger of you swaying over the top as the sides are quite high, and they do seem completely secure - it's just a very odd feeling - probably like the first people to go across the newer wobbly bridge at home! :D

By the time I'd finished the swinging bridges circuit, it was time to head back to the coach and it was a really nice forest walk on the way back too!
The coach trip only had 6 people on it, including me and 3 of them were taking a boat trip ride back to Hobart. We stopped off in a little town called Peppermint Bay on the way back, which was a nice harbourside little town. Had some cute little craft shops - managed not to buy anything again - yay!

I had thought I wasn't that tanned, but obviously having a foreign sounding name (it's Danish), a Chinese face, and an Ozzie tan is confusing people! The bus driver - Kim - asked me where I came from and when I said 'London, England' in my very English accent he did look a little confused, bless him. He said he didn't think I was English seeing as I was so brown, and when I said I'd been in Oz for almost 3 months so I should have a good tan by now, he just said he wished he tanned quite so well! These Ozzies are odd people! :)

Am absolutely shattered after having a long day yesterday and today so I'm really looking forward to having a lie in tomorrow morning! My wildlife park tour isn't until the afternoon so I can get my case packed (groan - how much will it weigh this time? It'd better be less and not more or the same!!) and then head out. Nancy and Lyell are also going to drop me off at the airport, so that's really nice of them and saves me having to take a bus or a taxi which is just added palaver :D

ps - forgot to say about my bus journey down to Hobart, as it was an evening bus, saw lots of lovely stars out of the bus window! Have no idea what constellations they are (number 53 on my list of things to look up by now surely?) but it was soooo pretty!