Veronika Wild

  The very top of Mc Gowan's Falls - apologies for the dull pics. The sun hadn't come up yet!   As the crow flies and according to Google maps, Mc Gowan’s Falls are only about 23Km away from Preolenna, but both neglect to mention that this is via an unmade Forestry Road, all of which vary greatly in quality. Most are unsigned and usually single lane with nowhere to pass or turn around. They can also be very treacherous. At this time of year after so much rain, you are likely to encounter wash -outs, enormous potholes, weakened bridges and possibly fallen timber across the road. Since these are private roads, you travel at your own risk and can’t complain or sue if you break an axle or write yourself or your car off. I think it's very difficult for people coming from more densely populated regions to imagine how wild and rugged Tasmania is beyond our towns and cities which cling like embroidery to its fringes.  I always enter such roads with great trepidation and carr...

Once more into the Rainforest   Apart from an impromptu stop at the Mole Creek Market, where I spent most of my money, the next day proved to be rather disappointing.   I had managed to find someone who had not only heard of, but been to Sensation Gorge Falls, but apparently he had only succeeded by clinging onto bushes and hauling himself up a cliff face. Undeterred, I went along to the rangers’ office at nearby Marakoopa Cave. Though they went to great lengths to show me where the track began, they also warned me that the last time someone had come to cut the track, they had given up after encountering four snakes in the first few metres.  Enthusiastic worker at the apple juice stand, Mole Creek Market Ever hopeful, I soon I found myself at a dry scrubby creekbed beset with knee high grass.   Having a pathological fear of snakes, I was about to put my gumboots on, when it occurred to me that if there was no water in the creek, there was pr...

Leaving the known world Wherever the Central Plateau – that rocky shield which occupies much of the centre of Tasmania, dips down towards the sea, you are likely to find spectacular gorges and waterfalls. I had already seen some of the more famous ones – Liffey Falls, Meander Falls and Westmoreland Falls, but there was a whole clutch of them in the hinterland behind Ulverstone which I had never heard of before. Passing through evocatively named farming communities such as Promised Land, Paradise and No Where Else, I eventually came to the Leven Canyon Road and then continued on through Upper Castra to Nietta. It is in the rich soils of these foothills, that much of Tasmania’s produce is grown.     Top of Silver Falls There are four waterfalls here on a track originally put in by Forestry Tasmania, but which had fallen into disrepair. In 2013 volunteers resuscitated it and put up track notes at the start, but three years on, some of the flagging tape had d...