Saturday, September 29, 2007

Search and Rescue Day 14-24

This block of 10 days was spent mostly on rope work. Simon practiced descending and ascending, rescuing people stuck down cliffs and getting protesters out of trees. The amount of ropes and harnesses you can see in the photos look incredibly complicated. The big silver buckle-type things are called karabiners or krabs for short . I have no idea what they do but there seem to be a lot of them and it all looks very confusing.

First they practiced at the academy going off a wall.... not too scary at all







From the wall at the academy to this cliff at the Cascade Brewery in South Hobart... a little bit scarier.






At Blackman's Bay- training to raise an injured person in a stretcher up a cliff.






On the cliff...

And over you go...
As the day drew to a close Simon got some magnificent shots of the sunset. One of the pluses of the job I suppose is the breathtaking scenery they will encounter as they trek where few have gone before.



The challenges got bigger and the next task was traversing the Mt Wellington organ pipes. I reckon those views were worth it though.




Hey Chels this is Hobart... in case you had forgotten(he,he)





Ooopsidaisy!!


The last and biggest challenge of all was the Gordon Dam at Strathgordon. As you look up from the bottom of the dam, the group look like tiny dots up the top waiting to abseil down.







The view from on top of the Gordon Dam - that's why I love Tassie.




Looks like a fly on a wall.




There is obviously an art to getting a protester out of a tree.

Looks like they are trying to spot a possum rather than a protester.


Very tired out.... I don't blame them.

I don't know these guys but they look very tired.... dreaming of a warm bed and shower no doubt.


2 comments:

The Kings said...

Oh wow - some amazing photos there. How scary, and exciting at the same time. Bet Simon is glad it is all over.

Chelsea Parsons said...

oh yes, I'm homesick now! Only 8 weeks to go now though!!!! Photos great Simone, Simon did a fantastic job getting people to document it for him! I would NEVER do anything high like that. Freaky!