Nothofagus Cunninghamii (Myrtle)
Day 19: 29 November 2019
A beautiful cool day unfolded for our second day on the Florentine Forest Road. We had expected about 41 kms in total over 2 days but as we mentioned yesterday it ended up a bit longer with a blocked road preventing our car shuffle. So today we anticipated and ended up with a neat 21 kms.
A highlight was the foliage along the road, alternating between rainforest and plantations. There were many young Tasmanian myrtles on the verge with vibrant new growth of a fascinating variety of colours from deep red through orange and yellow to bright green. The mountain clematis was flowering and climbing over man ferns and wattles.
Even though much of the day was deep in the forest, we got glimpses of Mt Field West, Tim Shea and a couple of other mountain ranges throughout the day,
Today was surprisingly enjoyable (we had not really been looking forward to this long section). We were helped by intentional times of reflective silence, then listening to a few playlists on the mini Bose speaker clipped to my belt and some passages from the Bible. Not really sure what a forestry worker who drove past us thought of two middle-aged walkers listening to Manhatten Transfer in the middle of nowhere.
A super little shady spot for lunch and we were soon on our way again. We needed to finish the day relatively early to get to the small town of Westerway 20km from where we were staying in Maydena to refuel our vehicles for the next three days of car shuffling between starting and ending points.
Our walking day finished on a more sober note as we entered the fire zone. Devastation from January’s bushfires was all around with little signs of hope and recovery.
Back at our car, Tim had an unexpected job to do. Thankfully we had everything and did not regret leaving the firmly embedded spanner Merran had discovered in the middle of the Florentine Road earlier in the day.
