Day 5 : Kia Ora Hut to Windy Ridge Hut (8.6 kms)

Du Cane hut

Today was a day of waterfalls.  From this point on you leave the alpine views and grasslands behind and move into more classic Tasmanian forest.  It probably has a particular name, maybe subtropical rainforest, it certainly felt like it would be wet enough to classify as rainforest.

There were no more scrubby alpine plants to be seen here though, all massive trees and thunderous waterfalls.  So while the direct route was rather short in distance, it was certainly large in the number of waterfalls.

Du Cane meadow

 First up was Du Cane hut, this is an old trappers hut which sits in a really lovely meadow.  A family of trappers used to live here in the early 1900's, pretty remote.  The guy always used to wear a bowlers hat apparently.

First up was the D'Alton falls, which was quickly followed by the Fergusson Falls.

D'Alton Falls

Too much Photoshop?

 How do you like the fungi, I was playing around with the settings in Lightroom to try and get the red to stand out more.  Not too sure about it.  This was on the way to the Fergusson Falls.  And how do you like the Vignetting, that's my new favourite feature, though I think it would be very easy to go totally overboard with it.  I'll have to try and hold myself in check.

I think the D'Alton falls were really quite spectacular, more so than the Fergusson I think.

The final falls of the day were the Harnett Falls, these were more memorable for the wonderful mosses growing in the valley by the river.

That night we stayed at the Windy Ridge campsite.  This was apparently one of the newer huts along the track, but for some reason they decided to build it to sleep only 24 people, so also one of the smallest.  There also seemed to be hardly any places to camp, this was the only place where we ended up having to share our tent platform. 

Mosses and trees near Harnett falls