A bit less than 30 minutes after I took the previous post’s photo, we had walked a little further north, along Flinders’ western shoreline.
By 10.16 am the “face” of Hummocky/ Mount Chappell Island looked very different, albeit still unmistakably-itself.
Mount Chappell is remarkably imposing, given the peak’s modest (198 metres) altitude.
The only quasi-permanent human residents on Hummocky/Mt Chappell Island are its (circa 2) Pakana (aboriginal Tasmanian) rangers.
The island’s “big-headed” tiger snakes have prompted a lot of media interest, hysteria and hype; almost anything written/reported about them should be taken with more than a few grains of salt!
They may or may not actually have the largest heads in the “serpent-tiger world”.
Almost certainly, they are not in fact the most venomous/lethal kind.
Hummocky’s “tigers” prey almost exclusively on mutton bird chicks; these snakes endure an annual cycle in which “feast” is always followed by a much larger dose of “famine”.
This interesting, illustrated article appears to be better-informed than are not a few others.
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Musical bonus
One of the delights afforded by a topographically dramatic island is what happens when you reach it from “below the horizon”, by boat; as one draws closer, such an island appears to “rise out of the water”, progressively…its highest peaks first.
That phenomenon inspired one of the loveliest “island songs”; it celebrates the particular loveliness of Hebridean islands:
The Scottish singer-guitarist’s “Sunsets…” album was first issued in 1988.
Most listeners probably assume that Archie Fisher had Skye in mind; the beauty of Skye’s “Cuillins” is globally renowned.
However, other Hebridean islands also have hills/mountains that are locally known as “Cuillins”.
Archie Fisher is often-credited as the song’s sole author.
His “Cuillins of Home” deploys a traditional melody.
Fisher’s lyric at least in part derives from Canadian songster-folklorist Gordon Bok’s adaptation/translation of a venerable Scots Gaelic poem; the original poem’s “Cuillins” were the Cuillins of Rum.
Click here to see that island’s Cuillins.
Presumably, Archie Fisher substituted “home” for “Rum” because he wished to honour all of the Hebridean islands’ beautiful hills and mountains.
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This series’ next several chapters are all also fruit of our morning walk on 18 March 2025; they will focus on Flinders Island itself.
This little bit of its western shore was photographed from the same vantage point as was this post’s featured image…and just a few seconds later, with the very same 400 mm lens:
