/// Wild Tracks - Landscape Photography by Eduardo Gallo

WILD TRACKS

Passion for Landscape Photography

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Southwest National Park, TAS, Australia

March 2011

Southwest National Park, TAS, Australia

Canon 5D MkII & EF 24-105mm f/4L IS USM, 1/250s f/11 ISO400 @40mm

Google Earth for this photo
THREAT

The Southwest Coast Track is a 53 mile long path located within the Tasmanian wilderness. While roughly following the wild and remote coastline of the far southwest corner of the island, the track takes hikers above several weather beaten mountain passes, along beautiful beaches facing the cold waters of the Southern Ocean, through different kinds of dramatic old growth forests, and across mile after mile of flooded grasslands. This stretch of coast receives the full force of the "Roaring Forties" for centuries feared by sailors, which blow incessantly, and represents the first obstacle facing the incoming storms. The result is a notoriously inclement and unstable weather with lots of precipitation that encourages vegetation growth and feeds many fast flowing creeks that take the water back to the ocean. Hikers are flown in by aircraft to the isolated Melaleuca landing strip, from where it usually takes seven days to reach civilization again at the small village of Cockle Creek, the most southerly point in Australia that can be reached by road.

I visited late in one of the wettest summers on record, which is not an easy feat on these parts. The path was mostly mud, generally ankle deep but often knee deep, with lots of creeks to ford and only a few sections having any similarity with what anybody would call a trail. There were low clouds all week, with several periods during which the weather switched from rain to horizontal rain to hail and back again, and only a few glimpses of sun in the whole week. I felt like I had entered a parallel world where everything was green and there was water everywhere, something I had never experienced before. It was a well worth adventure, less for its beauty (which is there but I could not enjoy because of the weather) than for the physical challenge and difficulties of the terrain I was travelling through.

The picture shown above was taken while hiking in late afternoon along a two or three mile stretch of sandy beach, a welcome relief from the ever present mud. I still remember the feeling of liberation at looking at the long beach and thinking there was going to be no mud for a while. The headwind was very strong and I was wearing my full rain gear, so I had to make an effort at every step, just placing one foot ahead of the other to break into the wind. There was lots of noise coming from the waves in the ocean, and the clouds were moving over my head at amazing speed. The weather did not stay set for a minute, switching continuously among rain, hail, and sun. I had the camera hanging below my coat, taking it out and photographing right and left whenever it stopped raining. This was not the time to use a tripod, as it would probably have started flying anyway. This photo is my favorite of that day as the sunlit clouds coincide with the lonely island on the right.

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