6/3/22

On Sunday the 6.3.22 I joined seven other Ramblers for a trip to Speelers plain. I woke up early on Sunday morning with the sound of wind buffeting the trees and our windows. We checked the weather and though Launceston was going to experience strong winds for most of the day, the prediction for Cradle Mountain was excellent, and so it proved to be. Jennifer opted out because of concerns about tree roots which can be ankle twisting if wet and slippery. In retrospect She would have been fine but it’s best to be safe.

I drove my Honda to the Ranger station opposite the mountain lodge. I had a passenger as well. As I have mentioned, there were eight of us.

After assembling and kitting up in the car park, we set off along Pencil Pine creek on the Enchanted walk. All of this was in brilliant sunshine. A metre long Tiger snake was basking on a rock beside the walking track. 

The track is very benign here, beginning on boardwalk. It continues along the banks of the creek winding beneath myrtle beech and other rainforest trees and shrubs. It skirts button grass meadows dotted with a few tall eucalypts. We took the turn off to the pond behind Cradle mountain lodge and passing that we followed the signs to Speelers track.

The track has some elevation and descents to negotiate but they are not difficult, not technically demanding at all. We walked past a creek then entered thicker, taller forest.

We soon reached extensive button grass plains. There was some water to be seen but it wasn’t much compared to many other walks in Tasmania. Myrtle beech, groves of early flowering celery top pine, it’s small white flowers emerging from buds, sassafras and groups of tall eucalypts. Later we saw massive, old King Billy pines on the King Billy Track. This track joins the Speelers track toward the end.

There were tree roots but as the slope was minimal and the wood mostly dry, they were not a problem walking. 

The plains called Speelers Plain is a large area of button grass, with clumps of xanthorrhea on its perimeter. I could imagine this place being very cold in  any strong wind or heavy rain. Today was great, unlimited sunshine with only a mild breeze. I wore a light top for the walk but many of the walkers were comfortable in  shirts.

The track had no other walkers until near the end. The many natural scenes we encountered provided wonderful vignettes. Each a seperate image which includes sounds and smells.As we began our gentle descent and before we re entered the forest, here was a panorama;  of trees, plains, and with crystal clear views of Barn Bluff and Cradle Mountain in the distance. 

We stopped to take many photos and admire the many fungi. They were of different colours, shapes and sizes. On  dead logs or sheltered on the cool wet bark of trees. They liked shadows but some were in bright sunshine surrounded by King Billy fronds, beech leaves and rampant mosses. 

The myrtle beech varied as well from scraggy shrubs to dense, majestic forest. Thick mosses covered Spring fallen limbs and trunks of trees,  creating a rolling, repeating, chaotic sea of green as I peered into the forest in any direction from where I stopped.

It is very peaceful in the cool of the forest or walking beside the button grass. There is no need to rush, no need to think about all todays worries of the world. It’s a joy to have some space between the concerns of every day.

We stopped for lunch overlooking the plains. The sky was blue and clear; no haze hovered over the forests and mountains behind us. Distances seemed hardly to exist at all.