Wednesday 14 May 2008

JCI passes through Hell’s Gates

After a stunning, yet steep and windy early morning drive we arrived at Strahan; a small harbourside village on the west coast of Tasmania. A crowd of a few hundred people were on hand to take part in this historic moment, where the WYD Cross & Icon would travel by boat through Macquarie Harbour (the second biggest Harbour in Australia), toward the legendary ‘Hells Gates’.








Hells Gates is the name given to the narrow entry point for boats into Macquarie Harbour from the Southern Ocean . When convicts were shipped into Tasmania in the early 1800’s, many died passing through this channel because of the rough seas and relatively little margin for error.
Thankfully with the introduction of much larger boats and advanced technology, a ride through Hells Gates isn’t quite as scary these days! As we passed through the channel we spent some time in prayer, particularly reflecting on the many lives lost here over the years.








The boat then turned around and headed back into the harbour and up into the Franklin River. Here the captain stopped the boat momentarily to point out the Huon Pine trees, some of them dating back to well before the time of Jesus! Being surrounded by this spectacular scenery, I couldn’t help but be touched by the immensity of Gods creation.








Dan

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hey, that was one of the best couple of days of my life i reckon, it was so good to be a part of the JCI experience and to travel with it (kinda) for even that short amount of time... all you guys rock..

Safe journeys

Anonymous said...

That was a pretty amazing time of my life. Im so glad i got to be a part of the JCI experience, it was soo much more than i could have asked for. Thanks guys for sharing that with me..

Safe travels

 
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