The light streamed through the drooping branches and shining leaves in the sun-buoyed day. The forest colours penetrated the darkest shadows of the thick vegetation and blocks of sunlight stacked high on the tree stems.
I headed for the central plateau, a land unseen by man, occupying most of the island’s middle share. Its western parts made up the mountain ranges which extend all the way to the southern coast where rugged gullies and river valleys clung to a steep incline, covered in thick rainforest.
Any tracks carved by bushcutters grew over after only a few days in this desolate place. As the bushlands opened out I still found no trampled ways. Even returning to the forests’ light-breaks, where the grasses grew high, no signs of man’s movements showed. I took the higher country, wher
