As their eyes became used to the dimness, they could see a little way to either side in a sort of darkened green glimmer. The little plane is buzzing like an enraged hornet. I haven't understood a word he's said. But the country speaks for itself. The coastal city of Hobart gives way to orchards and fields, which in turn yield to clear-cut forest, to standing forest, and finally to unbroken, endless forest.
Rivers wind down the dark valleys and glitter in the sun.
A spine of stone peaks erupts through the trees and aims at our belly. We putt past Federation Peak, a quartzite fang towering over a black, shadowed lake. On its shoulder there is a pool as rounded and clear as a contact lens. Then the mountains drop to the ocean, whose pale green waves lap the various shores of Tasmania , Antarctica, and Papua New Guinea. I love walking.