Australia, New Zealand and the South Pacific - Clean Breaks: 500 New Ways to See the World - page 357

Need to know Rafting Tasmania ( W www.
raftingtasmania.com; T [phone]) runs
ten-day expeditions down the length of the river,
plus shorter trips from the river's lower sections
from Nov-March. The price includes transfers from
Hobart, national park passes, all equipment, and
food and wine.

488 rafT The franklin riVer,
TasMania

If there's a textbook method to psych up rafters
for a ten-day expedition on one of the wildest
white-water rollercoasters on Earth, the sign
where you launch into the Franklin River
isn't it. “Warning!” it shouts at the handful
of adventurers who dare to tackle the west
Tasmanian gorge on their own. “Several people
have died on this river system.” It catalogues the
reasons for their aquatic ends before concluding:
“Not sure of your abilities? Do not go on.”
It's at this point that you should become aware
that the safe option is to tackle the rapids as
part of a group and turn to the guides of Rafting
Tasmania. While solo paddlers may be at risk,
they say, all it takes to embark on one of the
world's supreme rafting adventures as a team
is determination and moderate fitness. At least
so long as you thrill to the idea of an occasional
dunking in rapids up to Grade 4, that is - the
toughest spots aren't called “the cauldron” and
“the churn” for nothing.
It's not all white-knuckle water rides, though.
Beyond the helter-skelter of the upper and
middle sections, the tannin-stained Lower
Franklin becomes a dark treacly ribbon. It's a
chance to absorb surrounding rainforest that's
thicker than the Amazon; a pristine pocket of
the world where 4,000-year-old Huon pines
line riverbanks and company comes from the
occasional platypus or glow-worms that stage a
lightshow at dusk.
Small wonder then the Franklin River is iconic
of both Tasmania's wilderness and the value of
raw nature. It took the largest mass protest in
Australian history - as well as the discovery of
Aboriginal caves that marked the southernmost
outpost of mankind during the last ice age - to
save it from a hydroelectricity dam in 1983.
Even David Bellamy got himself arrested to help
protect it. And if Britain's favourite botanist was
man enough to dip a paddle then you've got no
excuse.

489 sTay wiTh a saMoan faMily

Robert Louis Stevenson, the author of Treasure
Island , spent his last days in the South Pacific in
Samoa's tropical heat. In many ways, not much
has changed since his time in this Polynesian
island. Life still centres on the extended family
and the community; the chief-based system is
strong and traditional tattoos mark out those
born to lead. Nearly all villages are on the coast
where people have simple thatched shelters, or
fales , on the beach, in which to rest and enjoy
the cooling trade winds.
Customary Samoan hospitality has helped
simple, family-run tourist lodges to prosper as
locals have turned their beachside huts into
guesthouses. Now, on both of the two main
islands (Upolu and Savaii), for US$40 or so, you
can spend the night on a mattress on the floor
of a little open-sided fale , with a mosquito net
and maybe a locker for valuables. Your hosts will
prepare dinner and a tropical breakfast and can
arrange for you to go off on hikes or join in with
cousins and aunties in their chores if you wish.
During the day the men venture off into the
milky blue sea to spearfish from outrigger
canoes, a coconut-leaf basket ready for the catch.
Women weave mats from sun-dried pandanus
leaves or hack at coconuts to extract the flesh
for copra. Perhaps, if you're lucky, you may
get to witness a traditional tattooing session,
using sharpened pigs' teeth and ink made from
candlenut soot. By night, as the sea laps at the
stilts of your simple fale , you can sit and read
Stevenson under the wide and starry sky.

Need to know For contact details, directions
and further information on the various fales, visit
W www.samoa.travel/acc.aspx.