Rafting in Tasmania.

I had to rearrange my flight schedules
to participate on Franklin River rafting
expedition. I arrived to Hobart late on
Saturday evening. Tasmania, unlike 
Cairns in Queensland, uses daylight saving
time and I did not remember to set the
correct time for my alarm clock. I woke
up a half hour late at 7.30 on Sunday 
morning, panicked a little bit, got 
dressed and ran to the meeting point. 
Luckily they hadn't left, I got my gear
(wetsuit, sweater, two thermal tops,
helmet, life jacket and a spray jacket)
and we took off.

The group consisted of 9 people. There
were two guides: Brett, an older rafter
wizard and Josh, a cool rockstar-like 
rafter god. Additionally, there were two 
guide trainees: Anna, probably the nicest 
girl on earth and Rod, the joker in a 
cayak(sp?). The staff was great: very 
friendly, very funny and very easy-going. 
There were just five customers: Ray, a 
60-year old Aussie super-grandma; Bob, 
an American doctor living in Australia; 
Ian, the master of dry humor; Steve, a 
meatpacker who basically didn't say a word 
during the 10 days; and me.

The Franklin River belongs to the top 5 
raftable rivers in the world. The river 
runs through a temperate rainforest in
a natural park. The forest is virtually 
impossible to penetrate on foot, which 
means the area can only be reached by a 
helicopter, kayak(sp?) or a raft. The 
scenery is unlike anything I have ever 
seen: immensly beautiful undisturbed 
forest and magnificent rock formations 
created by the elements (annual 3 meters 
of rainfall). The river levels may vary 
several meters, which means that the river
and the banks are filled with logs. I had 
a disposable waterproof camera with me and 
I'll put the pics here as soon as I 
get them.

So, ten days of paddling, portages, 
trekking, cold, rain, leeches (I had 
two), snakes, no shower and sleeping
outside; does not exactly fit my 
profile, does it? It was absolutely 
great: wake up and breakfast around 8, 
rafting until 3-4pm, superior dinner 
cooked by the staff, some wine or a beer
with dinner, a hot rum and a card game 
after the dinner, and to bed when it got 
dark at 9. Aussies take the preservation 
of nature seriously, meaning we shat in 
plastic bags and did not make a camp fire.

After ten unforgettable days and 148km
of raftnig we reached Gordon River. We
were airlifted to Strahan with seaplanes;
flying over the river and the forest was
sooo cool. After a bus ride back to Hobart
we went out drinking heavily ;)  

Strongly recommended! Try 
http://www.peregrine.net.au/rafting/franklin10.html
for more details.