Geeveston Forest Walk 2017

Today we're heading down to Geeveston to walk in the forestry areas, a walk we've done before.

We turn off at Geeveston onto Arve Road which takes us towards The Tahune Forest Air Walk. We, however, turn off onto Oigles Road and park just around the corner. This confused the tourist behind me as he started to turn in with us, then realized his mistake, wrenched his steering wheel back, and continued on!

We parked and geared up for the walk.

Parking in Oigles Rd. just around the corner from Arve Rd.

Arve Road goes around here. Straight on is Southwood Road

This creates some interesting driving as tourists realize they should have gone left, not straight.

I think it's locals rather than tourists hooning here

We continue past the turn to Tahune, going straight on what is now, Southwood Road. 

Unfortunately, it's also popular with the locals an scenes such as below, are common. Not far off the main road.

Makes you proud to belong to the human race

We continue on one of many tracks in the area...

...going bush is not an option

First of many water hazards

Area of new growth. This is a logging area

We walk on, coming to another sight which I remember from 2016, and nothing has changed down to the shoe in the middle of the road.

We begin to leave behind some of the detritus of our fellow man to follow this track, turning off onto an older one.

We're starting to see some natural beauty now

Looking into the bush, you can see remains of some of the old giants

Adie points the way off the main track

The track is smaller and older and more pleasant to walk.

You could make your way off track if you wanted

Tiger snake Photo by Renate

The green was vivid against its surroundings

More fungus begin to appear

Also lichen

We're on an old track now

We exit the other end of the track opposite an area of button grass, plus some views.

There is some weather around, but none of it affects us as we head left on another track.

Looking over a button grass plain

Button grass button. A very old type of plant

Many areas of lichen just off track

Judging from the tracks, this is popular with 4wd, trail bikes and riders on horseback.  I think we can thank the 4wds for all the flooded areas we soon come across, beginning an interesting section of the walk.

Photo by Renate

Bypassing a flooded hole. Difficult to tell how deep it is

I will have a try very soon to measure the depth of a typical pool.

Bob signaling his success at bypassing this water hazard

Looking off track. Looks like easy walking

 It's deceiving, so we don't go there.

Something walked through this water puddle

Looks like White Waratah or Agastachys odorata

 But I'm willing to be corrected by an expert or even someone who knows better.

No idea, but it looks good

There's not always a lot of room to get around

You can always tell when a photographer has spotted something interesting

Tiny red flowers...

...look like this

Ignoring people going left, Tas finds his own way

 And those of us behind follow without falling in.

A short dry section

Soon we come to another wet section

I decide to test the depth of this one, and slide gracefully into it. Yep, it's deep and soft.

Below I model some good Tassie mud for you.

The worst of two legs

I had much sympathy or was that laughter from the others as I scraped the worst off with a stick. Walking was a bit squishy for a while, both legs having gone in.

Doesn't look much but it was deep

The proof is in the photos below supplied by Renate.

On we go

This was the last water we had to cope with

 Just to recap, up to this point we had the following incidents:

1. A walker had a painful bite by, probably, an ant which was under their shoe      tongue.
    This was a quite painful place to be bitten and caused a pronounced limp even
    when it was dressed.

2. Another had taken a fall into the mud, but not too badly.

3. I had my graceful slip and sink into nicely deep, dark mud, filling my shoes.

4. One of our number trying to negotiate this waterhole, slipped and went almost full length down into the morass. Unfortunately, on the way down they automatically reached and grabbed the nearest thing they could. Cutting grass. This lived up to its name, giving our victim a nasty cut between thumb and forefinger, which required dressing.

We'll have one more adventure later on when we think we're safe.

On we go, looking for a place for lunch, but before we do, I spot the fungus below.

Nice bright colour. I tried to find them in my new flip chart, but no luck

Lunch spot with convenient seating

 Finished, we move on, heading down.

Heading down a wide stony road

Prostanthera lasianthos or Christmas Bush or Mountain Lilac

Walking down a wide road isn't good enough for us, so Bob offers us an alternative and we dive off onto a small track.

Into the unknown. Not really, I remember this from last year

Tas spots something interesting

We reach another overgrown forestry track

This becomes more and more overgrown with the added attraction of lots of small to medium trees that have fallen and blocked the way.

This has been logged in the past and isn't impenetrable, yet

Haven't identified this yet

This is a big one

Suitably impressed, we continue on. but not before one more incident. I said many small trees had fallen over the track, some of which were actually small clumps of 6-8 saplings.

One of these blocked the track from just below head height. it was possible to pull the bunch down and two of us held it while others clambered over.

We let go and it seemed the bunch was willing to stay at a lower level so my companion straddled it to get over. Unfortunately, they bounced and the resulting rebound tossed our walker into the air and onto the track below.

The only injury was to our friends dignity and they made the crossing successfully on the next attempt.

On we go, following Bob through the bush until we reach a larger forestry road. This takes us back to the Arve road, not far from the cars.

There were a few twists and turns before we gained a larger track

Good thing Bob camps in the area. We should be prepared for a new walk as he was eying some old tracks leading off Southwood Road.

It was a good walk, almost all of the incidents could and were laughed off - except the cutting grass.

We had 13 walkers and covered 10.8km in 4:33hrs easy walking.

We did see a snake, but by the time I got to the spot it had had enough of people gawking at it and all I got was a sighting of its tail. Reptile attempt at mooning?

We walked clockwise

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