We’ve spent the past few days in the campground at Mt Field National Park before we head to our friends, Peta and Ron in Middleton.

We’ve stayed in many national parks, but this one is undoubtedly better than any we’ve seen by a country mile. We have power and water, there’s a clean amenity block with hot showers, flush toilets and a laundry. There’s tall trees at our rear and a beautiful babbling brook with platypus at our front (about 30 metres away). That’s the camp area. It gets a bit muddy in the rain, but with all that’s on offer here, a little bit of mud is a minor inconvenience.

The day area – wow, wow and more wow!! Theres more barbecues and shelters than I could count. Some of the barbecues are gas, and some are wood. Some are in the open and some are in stone shelters. All have several picnic tables and bench seats near by. But that’s not all, there’s more (and believe me, the ‘more’ is better than ‘steak knives’), inside several of the shelters there’s also built in stone fireplaces with chimneys and there’s loads of chopped wood supplied.

There’s several gorgeous walks in the park. The first day we took a 2 1/2 hour walk which travelled alongside a babbling brook through a rain forest. It was raining for most of the 2 1/2 hours so the ferns looked amazing drooping under the weight of the gentle, consistent rain. We walked past two stunning water falls. There’s so many water falls in Tassie that I fear I’m going to sound like a broken record – they’re all gorgeous and are worthy of mention.

Yesterday, our friends Marina and Terry joined us and we took a drive to Tassie’s famous Lake Pedder and the Gordon Dam. There’s very little there except stunning scenery reminiscent of the Scottish Highlands. We had lunch in the only place there, but I must say they haven’t taken advantage of having no competition. The lunch was delicious and reasonably priced, and we sat overlooking Lake Pedder with it’s stark, granite mountain surrounds.

Many years ago in New Zealand we came across one of those fairy tale red mushrooms which have fairies under them in the stories. (We looked for the fairies at the time, but they either weren’t there, or had hidden themselves well). We’d heard there are the same mushrooms here, so we’ve been searching high and low in the rain forests for them, but we hadn’t found any. Then, eating our lunch yesterday we couldn’t believe our eyes. Out in the open just outside the lodge was a big group of them. Again though, no fairies.

Today, we’re leaving for Peta and Ron’s, but we have put Mt Field National Park at the top of our list for a return visit.Perhaps next time Peta and Ron will join us as I’m sure, like us, they’ll enjoy taking cheese and bread, red wine and candles to one of the huts with the fire places for an evening feast.