Fantastic Fagus

Written by Mont Ambassador Geoff Murray

It’s that time of year again when Australia’s only native deciduous plant, Nothofagus Gunniior the Deciduous Beech, affectionately known as Fagus, or less affectionately....Tanglefoot, bursts into a mass of golden colour before the cold Tasmanian winter.

It’s been a year or two since I have been free to venture out for the “turn of the Fagus” and this year I explored a new area which I hadn’t previously visited.

I left my car at 4.30am and walked by headlamp up into the mountains to be ready for the sunset at a good vantage point. The sky was clear, not really ideal, but the view was still stunning as the sun slipped free of the horizon.

Moving on after capturing the sunrise I walked for a couple of hours to my chosen area. Unfortunately the sky was still clear so most of the day was simply spent exploring, looking for suitable subjects for later on when hopefully the light would be better.

I had an hour’s sleep in the afternoon as I had driven up from my home during the night and when I woke there was a lovely mist cloaking the landscape with a very light drizzle dampening the ground, perfect for image making.

Grabbing my gear I headed off to a spot that I found earlier that had some promising subjects. And they delivered nicely :)

A couple of hours later I returned to my tent, the superb Mont Supercell and cooked dinner before slipping into my Helium 450 sleeping bag. The time? 5.30pm. It was drizzling, I hadn’t bought a book and I decided I might as well go to sleep. So I did.

Always good to visit the mountains :)

Geoff Murray

Mont Ambassador