AU

by Ian Loft

Created on: January 21, 2008

Australia has so much more to offer for the adventurous and adrenaline junkies. From the bottom end across Bass Straight where only Tasmania can offer four seasons in one day through to the tropics there are amazing adventurous activities for the daring.

Tasmania

The apple isle is a perfect adventure playground in which a simple bush walking experience can easily qualify as extreme. Climbing from the base to the summit of Mt Wellington takes you through picturesque temperate rain forest trails for the first third of the 71/2-mile (12km) trek but don't think this is easy steps cut into some of the bedrock are your only way of negotiating one or two challenging climbs however the best is the final third. Taking the zigzag track is an exhausting yet rewarding climb where a good deal of climbing requires use of the steel wire ropes stretched alongside. The group I climbed with started the walk in summer clothing late one November (Beginning of summer down-under) yet before we reached the summit perspiration was freezing on our faces.
White water rafting experiences down some of the raging torrents during the snow melts rival anything New Zealand could offer. Canyons towering overhead as terrified rafting crew paddle desperately around and over obstacles is too intense to even think about until you charge out into the quieter waters between. It is only then the adrenaline effect is realized, often momentarily because around the next bend comes a new surprise heralded only by the roaring sound of the terror ahead.

The national parks offer snow fields, bush walks that can take over a week and lead through the most breathtaking vistas are often not thought of as extreme until experienced. Over a five-day trek the sheer scale of mountains we traversed using barely recognizable trails was breathtaking; it was not possible to capture the magnitude of scale using cameras only by experience.

Victoria and New South Wales

With the Dandenong's and snow fields of Victoria that cross the border into New South Wales (NSW) you can enjoy adventures far beyond what is on offer across the Tasman Sea. Few people realize or appreciate the kinds of distances, miles of open country where the isolation is in itself an extreme experience. Visit the Snowy Mountain Hydroelectric scheme and take a walk down one or two of the endless tunnels carved out of living rock through which access to the underground stations was made possible when thousands of migrant workers labored through the 1950's and 1960's to construct.

Caving at Wee Jasper in NSW rates as extreme and not for the faint at heart or the claustrophobic. One adventure I experienced was a cave called The Punchbowl" where an innocent looking entrance in a hillside concealed a 100' drop that required abseiling to the cave floor before exploring began. The expedition took the entire day through which some very tight places required stripping off all equipment and dragging behind by rope was a little terrifying when I thought about 600' of solid rock between me and the surface but there was better to follow. The final section ended at a point higher than the entrance on the opposite side of the chamber in which we abseiled into. Crawling across and hooking back up to ropes was the easy part, turning and then positioning to drop back to the cave floor took a little nerve, then of course up the steel wire ladder to exit what a day.

Queensland

Nothing like it anywhere in the world with the Great Barrier Reef offering amazing dive experiences. One of the dangers I discovered by accident was related to the clarity of water. It looked as if I could reach out and touch the bottom such was the clarity but checking the depth gage showed I was actually at 70' and still had some way to go. An ascent to 30' for the last 40mins ensured there were no problems due to the unplanned pressure effects of 70' over time.

Standing off the point of Palm Island one day in a chasm 40' deep I encountered one of the most dangerous marine nasties face-to-face as I looked into a cave. One of the largest moray eels I had ever seen was lurking a few feet in with a gaping maw open to snap up whatever tasty morsel passed its lair. Turing around I was about to move off until a cruising reef shark came nosing around fortunately it seemed curious but well fed from the smorgasbord of tasty fish.

Visiting a beach resort about 30 miles from the top of Cape York was a refreshing cool-off after a day traveling in the heat over endless dusty roads. The resort owner sat to have a chat when we came out of the water; he was carrying a rifle, which aroused our curiosity more than a little. The reason, as he explained with a perfectly straight face, was the floating logs' we had taken little notice of were in fact salt water crocodiles! Again it seems there were more than enough fish and other tasty morsels to satisfy their hunger otherwise the refreshing swim could have become a nightmare.

Northern Territory, Western Australia and South Australia

Kakadu National Park in the Northern Territory offers the most amazing trips through bush unparalleled by anything possible on the two relatively small islands of New Zealand. Wildlife beyond your wildest imagination thrives in their splendor and you can watch some of natures more violent displays of lightning from locations boasting one of the highest incidents of strike rates in the world.

Vast expanses of desert consume much of these three adjoining states and survival is a challenge not for the feint at heart. Adventures require careful planning and trips through these wastelands are not to be taken lightly or without an experienced guide. Traversing the Nullarbor Plain with it's hundreds of miles of dead-straight roads is something one has to experience to believe possible.

Australia has every imaginable extreme adventure opportunities with the advantage of landscapes, climate conditions and natural features that New Zealand cannot simply due to the vast difference in scale. You can travel for days without meeting another person and still remain in the same State or Territory. Specialist extreme adventures of skydiving, bungee jumping, white water rafting, snow boarding, skiing, scuba diving, indeed anything you can think of are available with the stark difference being the setting in which you undertake your extreme experience.

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