This past weekend we made a trip to the central highlands/Cradle Mountain region of Tasmania for some fun. We got drawn in by two tours that were not available the day we spent driving back from the Bass Strait ferry. So we booked some lodgings, rented a car, and drove back up from Hobart on Friday. We stopped on the way for short hikes to the suspension bridge over the Franklin River, Donaghue’s Lookout, and Nelson Falls - all marvelous.

Saturday we rafted the King River Gorge with King River Rafting - a nice set of Class IIs and IIIs in a narrow gorge with rare Huon Pines along the banks. Our raft guide was from Ontario, Canada. He made sure we got wet and that at least one person got bounced out of the boat over the ledge he chose to take sideways. The most exciting part of the trip was scrambling around the unrunnable falls - which involved making a bridge of rafts, floating a short stretch, then scrambling up and back down a steep bank. Our return ride - a vintage rack and pinion steam train from the ore mining era - tooted a whistle greeting to us as it descended the steep bank below the drop.

Sunday was the real excitement - we signed up for the Dove Canyon Canyoning trip with Cradle Mountain Canyons. This was our first time canyoneering (or canyoning, as they call it here). The trip description is pretty intimidating - we were told to prepare to jump off six to eight meter ledges into waterfall plunge pools, and float down water chutes. All in icy water on a cool autumn day.

In the safety lecture the guides, Jackson and Patton, reminded us that once you entered the canyon, the only way out was to navigate all of the “features” to the exit trail below the canyon. As we queued at the edge of the canyon, while the guides set up the descent ropes, one of the women on the trip said she would go last because she had an extreme fear of heights.

We started by rappelling down a cliff into the water (they call it abseiling, which is a new term for me). Once you got used to the ice cold water in your thick wetsuit, the first bit was a fairly pleasant feet first float through the steep gorge, with a couple of ledges and logs to clamber around. The first jump was an easy short drop into a shallow pool.

Then came the “Freestyle” jump - six meters off the lip of a waterfall into the plunge pool. The first three or four trippers went right over and hammed for the camera. Then the women with a fear of heights got to the edge and would not go. Jackson tried giving her time to collect herself, talking her through it, counting to three. Nope. So she went to the end of the line and Robin and I jumped. I was more afraid of slipping on the rocks at the edge than I was of the actual jump! I jumped right in, popped up, swam to the edge of the pool with the others and decided this trip was going to be a piece of cake.

But we had to wait a while in the cold water while the guides tried to coax the acrophobia woman to jump. She would not. So they set up a line to the edge of the pool and lowered her down in her harness. This took a while longer, wh8le the rest of us pumped our arms and danced in the water to stay warm.

A few more floats and walk around brought us to the highlight of the trip - a jump into a waterfall pool known as “the pit” followed right immediately by a natural water slide known as the “laundry chute” which empties in a vertical waterfall to the pool below.

The plunge to the put was going to start from a seated position where the water funnels into the falls. The guide advised (as best as I can remember) that you must be sure to push off as the water pushes you over the lip in order to clear the recirculating water under the waterfall. If you did get stuck, he said, push off against the wall to get past the hydraulic.

Robin went just before me, and she did not seem to push off at all, but the guide assured me she exited the waterfall ok. So I jumped into the stream, smiled for the camera, and gave what I thought was a good push off, into the pit.

I plunged into darkness and it seemed a long time before I broke the surface. The air I sucked into my lungs seemed to be one part waterfall spray for reach part of air. I could see the queue of trappers at the opposite end of the pool, and swam toward them. But I was getting sucked back into the spray of the waterfall, gasping for breath. I tried to grab the rock wall to take a break, but it was sheer and slippery.

As I was sucked back into the waterfall, I shall there was a clear space behind the falls, and I let myself drift into it, and found a crack to grab while I tried to catch my breath and figure out how to push off and get out. Immediately, one of the guides was behind the falls next to me (I thought it was Jackson, but it turns out it was Pat). He was shouting something at me - what I thought I heard was “It sounds wrong but you need to go into the falls to get around. We’ll push off together.”

But I just wanted to get out of there, and as soon as I could brace my legs against the wall I pushed out hard, straight under the waterfall. I was pushed down deep into the darkness again, but when I came up, I was drifting to the downstream end of the pool.

That was good. But I was still a little panicked and trying to catch my breath and did not want to get sucked into the laundry chute until I had steadied my breathing. Everyone seemed to be piling up next to the entrance to the laundry chute. Robin was right there, beckoning me in against the wall Again, I tried to find a crack in the rock wall to grab onto while I caught my breath. I found one, but was soon pushed down to make room for the acrophobia woman who had just joined us and needed to catch her breath as well. Then Robin was shouting that another tripper had dislocated her shoulder, and needed room.

One of the guides reduced the dislocated shoulder in the water in the pit.

We then took our turns plunging into the laundry chute. I was eager to go - I just wanted out of the darkness of the pit. We were told to float on our backs and keep our hands and arms locked over our bellies. “Do not try to stop yourselves in the chute. Your body will not stop. But your arm might.”

I bumped partway down the chute and stopped on a rock. But the water pressure built up right away and pushed me through. It got very dark (maybe my strap on sunglasses didn’t help). But then I was dropping into the light with and plunging into the darkness of one more pool, with an easy swim out. Exhilarating in being alive.

Lunch on a gravel bar came soon after. Nothing after lunch was quite as dramatic as the pit and the laundry chute, but there was at least one nice slide into a waterfall drop, and a roped jumped into the frothy “Teacup” pool - roped so that there was no risk of getting sucked into the hydraulic below,

On the walk back, Jackson (who was born in Michigan and hails from Utah) shared stories of other rescues on trips. His girlfriend once got caught so bad in the Pit waterfall that they had to set up ropes to pull her out. Apparently low BMI people like me have a tendency to get sucked in. Apparently, the water level was marginal for sliding off the ledge into the Pit - at higher levels, it’s safer to climb up higher and take the 8m jump to leap clear of the hydraulic.

After all that excitement Sunday, we went for a nice relaxing hike from Dove Lake up to Crater Summit. We had splendid views of Cradle Mountain on a brilliant day. I will be back there in a week to start a six day trek on the Overland Track.

Here’s a link to someone’s YouTube video of the plunge into the Pit and the slide down the Laundry Chute (different year, different trip). In this video it goes so fast! It seemed like much longer.