31 August 2017, Styx Valley, Tasmania

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This was our day to drive to Bruny Island from Mt Field National Park and we also had time to visit the Styx Valley in the morning.

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Looking up at a Eucalyptus Regnans.

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They are amongst the tallest trees in the world and can grow to 100 metres (330 feet), second only to the redwood.

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Ferns below the eucalypts.

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Eucalyptus regnans.

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Is it a tree root or a sculpture?

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This is the River Styx.  It was so named from the amount of tannin in the river, sometimes rendering it almost black, and thereby conjuring up an image of the river of the dead.

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Hades lies on the other side and the dead must carry a coin to give to Charon, the boatman, so he will carry them to the other side.

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Those who die and do not have the proper coin are condemned to wander the banks of the river.  I did not see any on this day though.

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The Styx is also the river that Thetis dipped Achilles in by his heel to render him invulnerable, except as it turned out, for his heel.  I didn’t think to strip off and jump in while I was there.

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This is probably back out on the main road to the Gordon Dam.  I had hoped to get to a lookout over Lake Gordon and Lake Pedder or even visit Lake Pedder but we had a ferry to catch and were starting to run out of time.

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We did visit the Creepy Crawley Nature trail, though.  This is a short trail through rainforest where you have to clamber round and under branches over the boardwalk.  It was difficult to get any images due to extreme contrast in the lighting, which reminded me again how fortunate I was not to encounter “good” weather on the Overland Track.

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