Long Neglect

Sometimes there are things that just get put on the back burner. Time is of the essences and with only so many hours in a day you just have to prioritize. Take this blog for instanced. It's not that I don't like posting material here, it's just when nothing particularly new or exciting has been happening in my life I can't seem to justify the time to ramble on repeating what has become commonplace. Of course I've been out climbing in the last three months, loads of times, but it's been pretty much the same old story: I go to a familiar crag, climb on a routes that look a lot like the ones I did on either side of it and have probably already blogged about, maybe do it or maybe fall off a bunch of times trying it, and then come home. I thought I was going to have something new and interesting about three weeks ago when we made a plan to go scuba diving in and around some sea caves down on the Tasman Peninsula. It's suppose to be some of the best diving in the state and doing  underwater caving sounded like it could be fun, but unfortunately when we drove down there the weather had turned to shit and the combination of big swell and poor visibility sent us driving pretty much straight back home. However, during the drive back home in the pouring rain, the possibility for another activity I had long been neglecting was making it's way up from the depths of my psyche and seemed to be gathering motivation as it came - kayaking.

I've always liked kayaking, it's just that in the last eight years or so I've been so obsessed with climbing I haven't had time for it. If you want to climb at the top of you ability there's not too much room for other similar attention/time consuming activities, so skiing, kayaking, and mountain biking got the chop. That was until about three weeks ago. Skiing is still out since we don't get any real snow here, and biking is also out cause I don't own one, but the opportunities for boating had presented themselves. I don't actually have a kayak here either, but it just so happens that some friends of mine living three houses up the street have about seven and are willing to lend. Combine that with some spring rain, a lack of climbing motivation, and a few other keen paddlers and I've got myself back in game. I've been out boating more days in the last three weeks than I've boated in the past 6 years and have been pleasantly surprised at how quickly my skills came back. I was never a world class boater or anything, but I wasn't too bad either and I think I've even improved at many of the mental aspects in my hiatus that has made up for my lagging muscle memory. It's been a nice change from the climbing life, and has gotten me out to see some really beautiful rivers and exploring a new aspect of the island. Unfortunately I don't (yet) own a waterproof camera so my ability to take pictures and video has been lacking. Nevertheless I did get a couple shots of my compatriots  this past weekend with Leanne's old camera before the battery died when we went out and did the Lea River.

The Lea flows off the Cradle mountain plataeu, and this was actually the second time I had done it (I also did it a couple weeks before when the water was up). The water was a bit low this time around, but it was still fun and the run is a beautiful section of steep creek regardless. There is an annual race on this river and here is some footage from a few years back to give you an idea of what it's like. There is some footage at the end of that video from another river, The Leven, which also looks pretty amazing and if the water level is right I might try and do it next weekend.

The cataract gorge just down from my house was also running last week at a nice water level and I was able to get out after work with the lengthening days and run it a few times. There was a professional race held on it a few years ago that has some nice footage of some of the drops.

I also had an amazing day out on the last weekend in September with a couple other guys. First we did the Nile river - a fairly difficult and technical steep creek in a remote valley coming off of Ben Lomond (it was actually snowing at the put in when we started). 

After that we drove over to do an upper section of the North Esk I hadn't done before called the Big Bend (sorry, couldn't find any footage of this one). It had a bit more volume than the Nile, but was technically easier and was a lot of fun just riding over big waves and punching through holes. Between the two it made for a really exceptional day.

So that's what I've been up to recently. I'm not sure how long this boating thing will last considering we're coming into a dryer part of the year (most of the tassie rivers need rain fall to make them boatable), but so far it's been really fun. Hopefully next time I'll have a bit more white water experiences to share, but if not I'm sure I'll have something else. I will make a real effort to get something up on this blog next month, so check back toward the end of November and I'll make sure I'll have done something noteworthy to talk about. Till then-