We started this trip chasing waterfalls in New Zealand 3 months ago, so it’s only fitting to conclude it with a waterfall hike. Mount Field National Park is an hour and a half from Hobart, and has a trail that winds past 3 waterfalls – Russell, Horseshoe, and Lady Barron.
The trail starts at the visitor center, and is an easy flat walkthrough rainforest to Russell falls.A series of stone stepsand wooden stairs lead you toHorseshoe falls.The Tall Trees walk between Horseshoe and Lady Barron is through an eucalyptus forest. What has struck us during our time in Tasmania is that there are no koalas despite there being eucalyptus trees all around. Apparently, Koalas are only endemic in certain parts of mainland Australia, and introduction of koalas into Tasmania would pose a risk to the native Tasman habitat.Tasmanian pademelons, on the other hand, are everywhere.Sometimes hiking isn’t just aimlessly walking and admiring nature. Once in a while you get to learn a thing or two. Take the clinometer, for example. This instrument incorporates some basic trigonometry to help determine the height of a tree. Here’s how it works, 1) place the clinometer at a known distance (A) from the base of a tree; 2) look through the eyepiece and line it up with the top of the tree, this gives you θ (the numbers on the instrument); 3) recall SOH, CAH, TOA in trigonometry, in this case it would be tan(θ) = height of tree (O)/A, and voila! Who knew 9th grade math would come back to haunt me after all these years…Past the Tall Trees, the path winds back down through the rainforest to Lady Barron falls.Finally, a 40-minute walk back to the visitors center completes this 2-hour loop.
This easy trail is a must for waterfall & rainforest lovers, as well as math enthusiasts…
FIRE'd @ 47 