the quiet revolution

On a rainy day road trip up the Tassie east coast with playdoe_man. Planning a lovely hike through Freycinet National Park in the morning, so hopefully the weather lifts. For now we're holed up in Swansea for an evening of relaxing, watching the rain sweep across the bay.

Posted via m.livejournal.com.

Ok, I am most definitely insane. I have just booked myself in to spend 7 days over New Years in the middle of the Tasmanian wilderness. I'm going on a rafting trip down the Frankin River, part of the Tasmanian Wilderness World Heritage Area.

If the river itself doesn't kill me^[1], the portages and day-hike up Frenchman's Cap will come close!

The Franklin's a part of this island I've been keen to see for a while. It's apparently stunningly beautiful and is also an interesting part of Tasmania's history. The modern green movement was born here when the Hydro Electric Commission moved to dam the Franklin in the 1980s. Protestors successfully prevented the dam from being built, bringing down a government in the process. This makes the trip particularly interesting to me, being an ecologist, environmentalist and supporter of the green movement, and also a current employee of the descendant of the old HEC. Poignant, no?

Meanwhile I'm off to Launceston this evening, spending the weekend "up north" for a soccer tournament in my role of team manager for the southern girls under-16 squad. I've got plenty of time between games so I'm hoping to get out exploring and photographing, providing the weather cooperates and I can drag myself out of bed for the early morning light. A visit to the Ninth Island winery would go down nicely as well. I'm yet to even pack and am not looking forward to driving up in the dark, dodging the wildlife (both human and marsupial).

May your weekend be what you need it to be, I'll catch you when I get back.

xoxo



[1] Refer to Richard Flannagan's debut novel set on the Franklin River: "Death of a River Guide"...

So, I am in Melbourne, having a holiday. Except I am still recovering from the 'flu, so am doing very little other than sitting around wasting time on the internet, which I could do just as well at home, so seems like a waste of my holidays. Tomorrow, however, things shall improve, as my friend Kelv and I are heading down the Morning Peninsular for a day of exploring.

This is not the holiday I was planning. Originally I was booked on a freaking awesome tour across South Australia, including a scenic flight over a flooded Lake Eyre, with a weekend in Melbourne tacked onto the end. I was ridiculously excited about that trip: Going to lots of places I'd never been before, seeing the desert, seeing Lake Eyre, meeting new people. But it was not meant to be: the tour was over-booked and 3 days after booking I discovered I wouldn't be going after all, and due to other commitments I couldn't reschedule the week off until October, when the lake will be drying and the wildlife dying. That didn't sound like so much fun, so plans were changed and here I am in Melbourne, having a nice time, but not quite the experience I was after. Perhaps it's just as well though, seeing as I'm still a little sick.



Today I'm resting up, tomorrow we're off to Mornington, and Tuesday we're heading to Daylesford with the lovely nurseysarah. Wednesday I'm taking a day to myself to wander about Melbourne city and perhaps make some camera-related purchases, then Thursday-Friday the plan is to head down to Wilson's Promontory National Park for an over-night adventure (that reminds me - must look into accommodation options). There are spare seats in the car, should anyone else fancy tagging along.

Saturday morning I have a surprise in store for my lovely hosts, but the evening is free for social things, then Sunday I fly home again, ready to start another working week and no doubt very pleased to be back in my own bed.

Next holiday though, I'm definitely doing the tour someplace I've never been thing.