5th June 2009, Trial Harbour.

How did we come to be here?

It started early in the morning. We were staying at accommodation in Zeehan. Wiebke was making her breakfast in the kitchen. She exclaimed (with a german accent which makes it a bit funnier) “Oh my god! There’s an animal in it!” She was referring to a shell she’d brought back from Trial Harbour the day before. It was on the kitchen sink, and the snail inside it had ventured out probably to look for it’s (they’re hermaphrodites I think) own breakfast.

So, we took it with us, in a jar, with some water, sitting on the floor of the car, while we bounced our way to the day’s walk. The plan was to return it to Trial Harbour after a walk to and around Cumberland Lake.

We got back to the car about 30mins before sunset. It looked as though the sunset was going to be pretty spectacular – it wasn’t, but I’ve included a photo for reference (see below). We decided to try and get to the water from where we were, just following a few 4wd tracks to the edge of the cliffs and then look for a way down.

The above photo is of a huge, deep puddle on one of the tracks.

We got to a cliff edge on dark. I put on a headlight, grabbed the jar with snail in it, and poked my way down a precipitous track. It finished at a vantage point for a little water fall to one side I think (I could hear it), and at the top of a sheer rock face still 50 metres or so from a small beach.  We ended up driving into Trial Harbour, and Wiebke released the snail roughly where she got it from.

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