Canyoning!

 The classic Cradle Moutain and boat shed shot.

 A wallaby with joey.

 The whole group.

 Abseiling into the Dove River Canyon.

Being washed over waterfalls.

 Lowered into the 'pit'.

 Losing my footing and winding up almost upside down.

Leaping over waterfalls.

 Roaring down the 'laundry shoot'.

Jumping into another pool,

 Beautiful Tasmania.

 A spotted quoll.

A Tasmanian Devil.

Thursday, December 22^nd

I was up early this morning in order to drive back to Cradle Mountain for the Canyoning Adventure. This was the main reason I had come back to Tasmania, as I had seen it in March but didn't have the time to do it. So after a quick continental breakfast I drove the 45 minutes along a beautiful road through rainforest and alpine terrain with no traffic. I got there early and had time to relax and get organized.

What a difference a day makes! The day before I got here it snowed! They got about 4 cm of snow in the morning that melted by noon. Yesterday was cold (7 degrees in the morning and 14 in the afternoon), windy with a mix of sun and cloud, and late in the day low cloud and rain Today, nothing but sun, no wind and warm with a high about 23.

I had time so I drove into the park (which is only possible early in the morning as it is a narrow road with one lane sections and very limited parking. When the lot gets full they don't let anymore cars in and everyone uses a shuttle bus). I drove the 10 kilometres to Dove Lake for an unobstructed view of Cradle mountain bathed in sunshine and blue skies! What a beautiful place! I stayed for a half hour and walked around to the boathouse before driving back for the trip.

When I got there I met Ryan and Ben, our guides for the day and the other 11 people who were going. They were all from Australia. We were kitted up with a long john wetsuit, a wetsuit vest with hood, and a wetsuit jacket, socks, shoes, gloves, helmet and harness and a bag to put it all in, along with our own things, such as water and change of clothes. We had to carry all of this in with us as a backpack. We loaded up in the van for a short drive to the start point. We had to walk for 40 minutes through rainforest and button grass fields before we got to the top of the canyon. Here we all had to change and put on our equipment. Then we hiked down for about ten minutes to the abseiling platform. Here we were given a briefing of what to expect for the day.

The first thing was abseiling (or repelling) down the rock face to the Dove River. We went down one at at a time and were lowered down by Ben as we pushed off the cliff with our feet. At the bottom we were dropped into the river. The water was cold (about 6 or 7 degrees apparently) but the wet suits were good. Then we floated downstream to a meet up spot. For the rest of the day we jumped into pools; were lowered into the 'pit' and shot down a 'laundry shoot'. It was a great day, but very challenging too. Jumping off the cliffs into the water and being washed over falls and floating down stream, was fun but scary at times. Because we had two guides and twelve people, we had to wait our turns. As the day went on some people got quite cold.

The final challenge was the climb back out of the canyon and up a very steep hill on a very rough and muddy trail in all of our gear. That certainly warmed us up as it was bloody hard. When we got back to where we had left our change of clothes we had lunch. Lunch had been in one of the two bags that the guides carried and had thrown over all five falls. It turned out to be wraps with all of the ingredients individually enclosed in containers. It was quite good. Then we had to hike all the way back out again.

Again I was totally exhausted by the end. After we finished I asked Ryan about the Devils at the Canyon breeding park. He highly recommended it. So, I decided to go. I really enjoyed it. I took the night feeding tour. The guide told us all about Tamanian Devils and the contagious facial cancer that is threatening to wipe them out. We watched as the devils squabbled over the pieces of wallaby tail. The guide as told us all about the spotted tailed quoll and the eastern quoll.

Then I drove back to Tullah where I went to the local bar and had dinner and a beer before going to the lodge to sleep.