Dove Lake Canyoning, Tasmania

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Hello everyone, I'm Peter, and I’m writing about our canyoning experience at Cradle Mountain Canyons, specifically Dove Canyon. The canyon is fed from Dove Lake, which was formed by glaciation. For anyone unfamiliar with canyoning, it consists of navigating down a section of the river using numerous techniques such as walking, swimming, jumping, and rappelling. We started our day with an early breakfast at 8 am and left for the canyons at 10 am. We then met our lovely tour guides Pat and Felix who gave us a brief rundown of the day's activities. One moment that stuck out was them explaining that once we were in the canyon, we were committed to traversing down it no matter what, as there was no other way out. We were then fitted up on a lot of gear such as wetsuits, helmets, climbing harnesses, and lifejackets. This was all shoved in a massive bag and we set off on a 45-minute hike to the entrance of the canyon. Once reaching the top of the canyon, we changed into our gear which was extremely challenging on the rocky terrain. The wetsuits were also extremely tight to keep us warm as the water temperature was around 60 degrees Fahrenheit. Once we were kitted up, we began to rappel into the canyon one by one. It was about a 20ft rappel down, and ending with getting dunked into the river. We began our descent down the river with a short swim to the first cliff jump nicknamed “Freestyle Falls” which is 20 ft into a deep pool. We all mustered up the strength to jump, remembering that talk from earlier about how we had no other option. It was quite fun and some in our group even managed a front flip. We kept moving down the river to the next feature nicknamed “The Laundry Chute”.

(Picture of “The Laundry Chute” (taken from the website))

 

 It was a natural waterside that was extremely high speed and jostled you around, hence the nickname. We were shot out into a deep pool called “The Pit”, with a small beach. We stopped to have a quick lunch that consisted of burritos and fresh canyon water which was delicious. We continued on down the canyon which consisted of a couple more smaller jumps and waterslides. In total, it took us about 2 and a half hours to traverse the length of the canyon. The last part of the day was the most challenging, which we were warned about in the brief. It was a near-vertical climb up the side of the canyon in our soaking wet gear which added about 20 pounds. The sight of our bags and dry clothes was the most relief I’ve felt in years. Our guides took pictures of us throughout the canyon which we should receive within the week so be on the lookout for those. If I had the option to canyon again I would with no hesitation. It was extremely fun and a once-in-a-lifetime experience that pushed all of us outside our comfort zone.

(Our Changing Area)

 

 

 

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