Cruisin' the Tasman

Last week Leanne and I had a couple of old friends, Hannah and Rob, visit from the states. I saw them briefly when I was back in the US at Christmas, but it was nice to catch up again and be able to show them around this little corner of the world. During the week I had a bit of work to do at the University, so I supplied some recommendations, handed them the car keys, told um to keep left, and sent them on their way. They seemed to do all right on their own, and then when the weekend came around we all packed up and headed down south to do some exploring.

We started out at the Salamanca market in Hobart, which is always nice since Leanne and I don't make it there very often and there's a lot of interesting stuff.

We then headed over to the Tasman Peninsula for a relaxing evening on the beach at Fortescue bay.

The next morning, Rob, Hannah, and myself took the Tasman Island Cruise, which gives a 3 h tour of the eastern coast of the Tasman peninsula. The word cruise may be a bit misleading, as its a tour of the sea caves and coast line in a highly maneuverable, 900 hp, 40 ft boat rather than an alcohol soaked jaunt on a multi-story ship with bar and casino. The morning we went out was hot, sunny, and calm and we got great views of some of the most amazing and rugged coastline Tasmania has to offer.

We also got to see a good deal of wildlife including black faced cormorants,

New Zealand fur seals,

Australian fur seals,

and albatross.

The remote lighthouse on the Tasman Island was also an interesting feature,

as well as the Island of the Dead in Port Aurthur Harbor, reportedly home to over 1,000 buried convicts from the mid 1800s. Rather amazing, considering the Island looks to be about 3 acres.

When we got done with the tour, Leanne and I took Hannah and Rob for a climb out at the familiar Mt. Brown. Rather than going to the Paradiso on this occasion though, we opted to check out the Parrot cliffs as there appeared to be more moderate climbs which would be better suited for our guests. In between literally and figuratively showing them the ropes, I went over and checked out a new climb that was recently put up in the vicinity and suppose to have a spectacular position traversing above the lip of a sea cave. As soon as I laid eyes on it my mind instantly thought of deep-water solo. The channel appeared deep, and the cliffs dropped straight into the water without any potentially hazardous protuberances or boulders. The climbing was about the right height off the water too, mostly 30-40 ft during the traverse and then topping out at probably 50 ft or so - just enough height to make it interesting without too much real danger. Under normal conditions with moderate or large swell, the biggest problem would likely be getting back out of the water if you fell in. On this occasion though there was almost no swell, and to top it off someone had recently climbed it as was visible from chalk that could still be seen on many of the hand holds. An opportunity wasn't going to come by any better than this, so I put on my shoes and chalk bag and gave it a go.

The difficulty of the climb wasn't too sever, about 7a+, and well within my ability. Nevertheless, it was hard enough that falling was a possibility if I made some poor judgements. Indeed, things spiced up for me when I got to the end of the crux sequence and found a couple slimy and wet holds. I pulled if off without taking the plunge though, and I'd have to say it was one of the coolest climbs I've done in a while. The exposure was excellent, especially without a rope.

Hannah and Rob have now headed off to New Zealand for a few more adventures, and I'm back in Launceston trying to get some progress going on this PhD. Other than work, I think the next things I'll focus on is shooting some bouldering footage in the Cataract Gorge, and getting back out to the Mersey River valley to finish up some beautiful projects I've recently found out there, so stay tuned for next month-