OK, so I got a little crazy and paid a lot of money to abseil (a.k.a. rappel) down the 140-m (460-feet) face of the Gordon Dam in southwestern Tasmania. Yes, that really is me (Alison), in my orange helmet with the green bag of rope below me, dangling under the lip of the dam...photo kindly taken by Randall positioned at a nice safe height above it all. But I’ll write more and provide other pictures from that adventure, and the rest of our two-day get-away to Mt Fields National Park and the route to the Gordon Dam, later.

This rather impulsive trip interrupted my writing of blog-posts for the rest of the time that we had visitors in Tasmania but all of that information will follow eventually too. The reasons for the trip were that the weather was going to be perfectly beautiful, we were finally both well after our annoying colds, we wanted to have one last look at a magnificent part of Tasmania that we had not seen, and tomorrow we are leaving Hobart to begin our passage north back to the mainland. While there is undoubtedly much more for us to see in Tasmania, it is starting to get quite cold and we have a long haul ahead of us to be ready to sail to Indonesia in July (assuming that borders are still open then...)

If, the weather forecasts hold, we plan to go through the Denison canal on Friday, stay somewhere between Maria Island and Wineglass Bay that night, then leave on Saturday for the passage across the Bass Strait to return to Eden on Tuesday. It remains to be seen if we can stick to that plan. SV Good as Gold made the crossing in fine conditions last weekend so we are inspired to follow them north. After climbing over the railing at the top of the dam this morning (the most “Oh S**T, what was I thinking?” moment of the whole abseiling episode)...I am hoping that the return passage across Bass Strait will seem easy...but we shall see.