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The next day we crossed
to Deal Island, arriving in the small Bay below the caretakers houses.
Deal Island is now a Tasmanian national Park. A small jetty in the bay
allows the unloading of supplies and people.
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We were invited in to have morning
tea and were suprised to met up with all of the NSW paddlers. There
had been a bit of a crisis. Wendy had slipped over and hurt her coccix
on the walk between Winter Cove and the caretakers house some days ago.
After a few attempts at paddling she realized that continuing the journey
was impossible. Wendy had arranged to be flown off the island and was
deeply disappointed not to finish the journey.
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It was quite a crowd of
well wishers that walked to the airstrip, to wait for the light plane
that would take Wendy back to Tidal River. Unfortunately the evacuation
wasn't considered a medical emergency so Wendy would have to pay for
the plane.
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The airstrip on Deal Island is quite
amazing. Weny's first comments as the small plane buzzed the Kangaroos
on the strip before landing was "I've got to go up in that!"
The plane taxied downhill out of sight before turning to reappear as
it headed into the wind and took off. National Parks have now stopped
using the airstrip beacause of the risks involved and insurance. A fairly
typical bureaucratic response . The airstrip had been used for years.
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The rest of us returned
to the house and then walked the track up to the lighthouse, a distance
of a few kilometers. The lighthouse is no longer in service, partly
because of the lack of need with modern technology but also because
not long after it was commisioned it was found that the Deal Is light
was often obscured by cloud. A separate light was built on nearby NE
Isle.
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The caretaker had kindly lent us the
key to get into the lighthouse but warned us that iron stairway and
outside railing were in bad repair. We climbed up to the outside landing
and had a great 360° view over the nearby islands.
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After returning to the
caretakers house, we visited the small museum that is house in an old
keepers house. Inside were many interesting artefacts and photos such
as this one showing how the lighthouse looked at the turn of the century
when there were 3 light keepers and their families on the island.
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On the next day we walked to the northern
end of Erith Island , to Wallibi Cove. Here Jamie and others went diving
for crays and fish. I wandered around the cliff faces on the NW side of
the island and examined the interesting rock formations. From here you
could get a good view looking back to Deal and Dover islands.
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Braving the rather cool
waters was rewarded yet again, Jamie catching a creayfish . Between
them we ended up with a good feed of fish for our last night on Erith
Island. The NSW paddlers left to paddle around to Winter Cove on the
eastern side of Deal Island. This shortened the next leg of the journey
to Flinders Island by about 8km.
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