We got up early this morning to try again to see platypus in the Derwent River. In the first half hour we saw two separate animals surface briefly, but well upstream from our location. We were about ready to abandon the search when a platypus surfaced quite close to us. It swam on a direct line upstream, so that we could scramble along the bank and see four subsequent surfacing, close enough to see the duckbill breaking the water followed by the head and back, and then an otter-like dive (head goes down and butt comes up) underwater again.
After breakfast the whole group went to a well known platypus spotting location, but to no avail. We continued on to Mt Field National Park, where we hiked to two waterfalls. The water in the streams here are so clear that you can watch the trout swimming, no doubt to the delight of fly fishermen and fishing eagles. After lunch we returned to this morning’s location, and this time nearly everyone got to see a platypus repeatedly surfacing.
We’ve mentioned the prevalence of sheep farming before, but here in Tasmania sheep really are everywhere. Yesterday we stopped on the main road while about 400 sheep were herded (by men on 4x4’s not sheepdogs) from one side of the road to the other. Today we saw sheep inside the hop farms (presumably use for weeding?) and a pair of sheep on the front porch of a dilapidated house.
Pictured: Platypus (morning and afternoon), Horseshoe Falls, Brown Trout 
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