saying hello to the southern ocean and inviting it for the initial welcoming handshake. i didn't even know that there was a southern ocean until getting to tasmania. mikaela tryed to tell me but on all the maps ive seen it's not included. yet it's the beginning of all currents to all the other oceans. in my defence it's still debated by sceintists weather it exists or not still; where does one ocean begin and end?. the same debate could be said about global warming... yeah right!
we've been out on the harbour a few times, first was a friends diving boat where they dive for dead fish to remove from the fish farm nets and try to fight off the seals that try to eat them! (the fish not the divers) then we went on the world famous gordon river cruise.
it was a great trip but the real story is behind it no t the trip itself. some of the more mature readers might even remember...back in 1980-83 there was the biggest environmentalist protest in australian history against the damming of the franklin river which would flood much of a mostly undiscovered rainforest in western tasmania. home to many wild animals and the great huon pine trees. one of many qualities of the huon pine is the oil extracted from the trees is the only oil known to man to sink in water. anyway a worldwide protest and an issue so strong it threw the federal government out and replaced it with the opposition whose main platform was to save this river. it is now listed a a world heritage site where the redneck government and loggers cant touch it. its nice to see the power of protest for the greater good of mankind not just short term financial gain can be won. the story is outlined in a great book written by bob brown a green party member and australian senator 'memo for a saner world'
fish factory(that's mikaela! we look pretty ridiculous in all the hair nets and safety getups)
some pics of risby cove
that's me an head chef davei'll still be here for just a couple more weeks. in the process of getting a bunch of pics uploaded from the cycle trip through cradle mountian and ill put them up in the back log of the journey so you may have to scroll through a bit of the past. mikaela's gone to perth already since she had the begining of the dolphin research project beginning in june. so im alone here for a couple weeks untill i fly out mid month to join her, i can't wait to see somewhere else. so if you've been huming an hawing about sending me an email now would be good
