Of possums, platypus and glow worms
With no satnav in our rented car we were very thankful for Susie de Carteret's extremely detailed instructions on how to get from Strahan to Mountain Valley Eco Retreat. Advertised as set “in the lost vally of Loongana” the Eco Retreat is not really far from civilisation at all. But nestled at the bottom of the valley along the Leven river, off the mobile phone grid and with no internet, it feels remote. And what a relief! With no distractions from the outside world one can just enjoy the complete quiet, watch the birds, sit motionless by the river waiting for a platypus to appear, clamber down into a cave to see glow worms at nightfall, and then stay up late watching the wild animals that come right up to the cabins.
Owned by Len and Pat Doherty, who moved here in the 1980s when they were in their late 30s, the retreat consists of five log cabins: two for six people, two for two and one for four. We had a big one and were pleasantly surprised: a separate room with four bunks (too bad our children aren't with us!), a functional bathroom, a large fireplace in the main room which contained a well-equipped kitchen with everything we needed for breakfast, a dining-room table, a comfy sitting area and a double-bed complete with electric blankets should we be cold.
We'd opted for dinner rather than cooking our own. It was brought to us by Pat at around 18:30 in a basket: chicken and vegetable broth and home-made scones. She just had time to tell us that the small marsupial we could see from the kitchenette window was a pademelon (a sort of small wallaby, endemic to Tasmania) before scurrying off to fetch our main course of lamb chops, mashed potato, mixed vegetables and a crunchy salad.
At around 20:00 Len invited us to join him on a short walk down to the river Leven to see if we could spot platypus. We didn't! However, wildlife is what this place is about so when it was dark Len set out some raw bits of chicken in front of each cabin and with all lights out, as if we were in a hideaway, we planted ourselves behind the windows, armed with cameras, and waited.
It wasn't long before the first feral cat slunk by to snatch some meat but then a spotted tailed quoll* came right up the stairs to gnaw at the meat. A short while later a possum appeared and then a very shy Tasmanian Devil who, sadly, like so many others, was clearly suffering from devil face tumour (DFR), a cancer first discovered on these animals in 1996.
The next afternoon, determined to see a platypus and armed with a pair of binoculars, we walked down to where the Leven river broadens and deepens into quiet pools. And there, within minutes of our arrival, bingo! We sat there very quietly for over an hour entranced, watching not one, but two, platypus (platypii? platypusses?), surfacing briefly (i.e. no more than 10 seconds) before diving down again.
At dusk Len took us on an expedition to look at glow worms. These are insignificant, brown pupae about the size and shape of a very small twig. They sit at the top of dozens of “fishing lines” of a sticky substance which look like droplets of water frozen by a strobe light. Then all they have to do is light up their abdomens, drawing hapless insects which get caught in the lines, and hey presto, there's dinner for a glow worm! To see this amazing sight we had to almost absail down a 20m steep drop into the cave which Len had warned us “is not to everybody's taste”... or physical or psychological ability he might have added!
The grand finale of our entrancing two days in the wilderness was provided by two, healthy Tasmanian Devils who were thoughtful enough to come sneaking right up to our cabin before midnight, returning again and again. They look much less fierce than I'd imagined, more like a small slightly awkward bear rather than the snarling beast of legend.
*a beastie I must confess I'd never heard of beforre coming here: it's another marsupial, looks like a cross between a bear and a cat, has a body about 50cm long and a similar length tail and can weigh up to 10kg
