Great fun this morning in Talbot Bay. Our leaders had arranged for the Zodiacs to take us across what are known as the Horizontal Falls. Because of the unique movements of the tides in these parts, there are three basins separated from each other by two sets of rapidly moving water, which can move in each direction depending on the tides. There can be as much as a 5-metre drop under certain conditions, but the conditions were relatively benign. Zodiacs are not allowed over the second set of falls, as there was an accident there quite recently when a rock underneath was hit.

The first run we had was a bit disappointing, as they were figuring out who wanted to go faster and who were a bit more nervous, so we went relatively slowly.

We had the chance for a second run later, which was far more exciting – proper whooping and hollering going on behind me. Much faster, lots of twists and turns, and went over the falls three times. Jamie was on the other side of the falls taking pictures – just as well as both hands were hanging onto ropes in the Zodiacs for dear life. Jamie was taking pictures on the other side of the falls, so will have to wait until he makes them available.

Later that morning, we took a much more sedate turn around Talbot Creek, which has the most extraordinary geology formed by sedimentary rock, which normally forms horizontal layers, being forced almost vertical by volcanic activity from underneath. This is a really beautiful area, and was rather more interesting than I was expecting.

After lunch was a short visit to the Iron Islands, where a core of iron ore has been exposed by the action of the sea and elements. This was vaguely interesting, but of much more excitement was three of us blokes having a stone skimming competition. I won, of course……..