Dismal Swamp

Imagine going down a 100m slide through the forest in 15 seconds. I did just that at Dismal Swamp. Twice! Dismal Swamp is a big sink hole in the middle of a forest. The good tour guide told us the floor of the forest was basically like honey comb. This means the dirt starts to sink when there is lots of rain.

She also told us that we should look out for tiny burrowing crayfish after we catch the slide to the forest floor. The tour guide gave us the challenge to also look for hexagonal ferns and eyes in the Blackwood trees put there by a local artist. She kept talking until mum got the courage to go down the slide.

I put on a hair net, a helmet and slipped into a carpet sleeping bag (not that I was tired!)
I laid back and the man pushed me down. It was a tunnel so I couldn’t come flying out when sped around the corners. It surprised me that water did not come through the slide. The way you stop is by hitting into big pillow at the end. At the end of mum’s slide she said ‘ow that hurt my knee’ but she survived. Ruby’s whole face was red and her mouth was wide open as she came down. Dad even caught it on camera.

I saw lots of wildlife including the borrowing crayfish then I remembered a fact the tour guide told me. What they do is borrow into the ground and build a mound around them with a hole at the top. They search for vegetation and meat under the ground. They don’t like to get wet so if water drips inside the crayfish comes and puts some more mud onto the side of the roof to make a taller tower. There were lots of towers at various heights.

The only thing dismal about this swamp was the mosquitoes so next time I’ll wear long pants!