Tahune Skywalk, Huon Valley

 We are keeping ourselves very busy in the Huon Valley.  There is so much to see in this area and we will not be able to see it all in seven days, that is for certain.  However, we have picked out the things we really want to see and do and on Tuesday it was the Tahune Skywalk.  We were told that the devastating bushfires in 2019 almost wiped out the whole area and there was a lot of structural damage to the skywalk.  Fortunately the visitor centre was saved, otherwise the whole centre would have closed.  A lot of beautiful trees were destroyed by fire and there is evidence of this right throughout the area, but whatever fire takes away it also brings back and re-generation of different plants are everywhere we look.  A lot of the giant eucalyptus know how to protect themselves from fire with an outer bark.  They are the first to recover.  It is because of this damage that we decided to visit Tahune.  God knows they need all the help they can get and it is not helpful that people post all over social media that Tahune is not worth visiting because of the lack of trees.  For goodness sake.

So, we got away from the caravan park around 9am and google maps had told us that there were two ways to get to Tahune and if we followed both ways it would be a lovely circular drive for us, so that is what we decided. Once we left Huonville we passed through the little townships of Ranelagh and Glen Huon and were pleased that we were still on bitumen road, but that changed to a well used and formed gravel road that was actually better than the bitumen.  But as we continued on our journey the road became much narrower and we were beginning to question whether we had made a wrong turn.  We came across a timber harvesting operation and I figured that we only had around 2-3km to go before we reached Tahune.  But alas, we came to a locked gate across the road.  **sigh**.  We had no choice but to turn back and when we reached the timber harvesters Philip asked them via UHF how to get to Tahune.  They told us that the locked gate was to stop people getting to Tahune from that direction as they only wanted people to enter via the main entrance.  Bloody Google Maps!  Anyway we had to back-track around 14km before we were finally on the right road and it was no distance from there to Tahune.

Once we had parked the car we headed inside the attractive information centre to purchase our tickets and were pleased that they gave us a 10% discount because we had travelled on the Spirit!  The price of the ticket included all the walks including the Treetops Skywalk and the Swing Bridges walk.

We decided to do all three walks starting with the Huon Pine Walk along the banks of the Huon River.  There were information panels scattered right along the pathway and we had to try and spot the Huon Pines, that was not difficult.

Once we had completed the 30min walk we headed to the Tanune Airwalk.  You have to walk up over100 steps to begin the skywalk that takes you across the tops of the trees at a height of 30 metres.  It is around 600 metres in length and culminates in the cantilever section that stretches out across the trees and river at a height of 50 metres. I walked out to the end of the cantilever but Philip reneged.  The wind had picked up a little by the time we reached the bridge and the movement up and down and side to side made the old heart beat a bit quicker!

Once we had completed the Airwalk we started out along the path that would take us to the Swinging Bridges Walk.  It is quite a long walk and the first part of the walk is lovely as we walk through a fern lined path but once we cross the river the scenery changes to one of giant eucalyptus and it seems so much drier on this side of the river.  Doesn't make sense but that is Mother Nature playing tricks by making one side drier than the other!

It was almost 2pm by the time we finished our hike and we were starting to feel a little hungry.  We had noticed a beautiful picnic area on our drive to Tahune and as I had packed a picnic lunch, that was our lunch destination.  Gee it was a lovely spot right beside a babbling brook, and a place I could gladly stay for a night or two and feel at one with nature.

It was another long day of playing tourist but we still have so much more to see so we must try to sleep well to stay refreshed for the following days.