Margo Lanagan will be hosting a writers’ walking tour of the Tarkine wilderness in Tasmania. The tour will stretch over the week of 5-11 January 2009. Fitness levels do not need to be extreme. All the walks are “easy grade” and the emphasis is on observation and reflection rather than on burning up the miles, and every day there will be time for writing and workshopping.

The Tarkine is one of the great temperate rainforests on Earth. It is every bit as majestic as the traditional European forests that so dominate fantasy settings, but is also distinctly alien to anything in the northern hemisphere. As Margo promises, “the giants are not northern ogres but Tarkiner giants: myrtle, gum, sassafras and Huon pine. The birds, reptiles, mammals and insects that thrive in and among them; the fungi, ferns and smaller flora at their feet and in their branches; and the humans who have shared this part of the planet with them for about 30 millennia, will stretch your usual definition of ‘forest’ and ‘coast’, of ‘life’ and ’society’, in utterly new ways.”

The tour can only accommodate 10 people so book early. Information and bookings here.

The Tarkine wilderness (from Ken’s public Picasa gallery):

Tags: fantasy, margo lanagan, tarkine, tasmania, wilderness, workshop, writing