News & Events
September 2009 Tassie
We had unfinished
business. Two years ago in Tasmania we’d walked out of the
Styx River, we’d lost two boats and lost two paddles. This
time would be different! Or would it?
The rendezvous
point was the bar of the Spirit of Tasmania, Emily and Peter, Anthony,
Steve, Bob, Valentino, Paul, Geoff, Catherine and Jimmy, the mysterious
Graham from Canberra that none of us had met and me.
A crew full of confidence and enthusiasm for the paddling ahead.
At
Devonport we picked up the boat trailer, Jimmy had organized through
his scout connections and the last of our paddlers, Evan.
The plan was to head south to New Norfolk, ready to start paddling the
next day.
Paul, Val and I were travelling in Paul’s trusty four
wheel drive. I was taking the opportunity to snooze when I
heard Paul and Val discussing a noise coming from the
engine. My suggestion to turn up the radio was dismissed
and we ended up in Launceston looking for a mechanic. Much
to Paul’s disgust mechanics don’t work on Saturdays in Tasmania so we
ended up leaving the vehicle at a service centre to be checked on
Monday.
In our hire car we continued south, fully
aware that dirt roads would void the insurance. This was
going to be interesting for a paddling trip!
That night, at our
base near New Norfolk, we made plans to paddle the Tyenna River the
next day, as the rain started to fall. It rained all night
and was still raining in the morning. It wasn’t looking
good for a paddle. We checked the forecast and found a big
whirly thing above us and lots of warnings all around. But
the rain started to ease and paddling started looking more appealing.
The
owner of the camp said it had been the wettest 24 hours he’d seen since
he had moved here, 100 mm! He kindly escorted us from the
camp to the main road. Water is pouring down the hillsides,
landslips obstruct the road and the neigbouring creek is in floor,
cutting off houses and pouring through gates and old cars.
At
Westerway we check the level of the Tyenna. It’s high and
running swiftly through the trees on the bank. But we’ve
paddled it at a similar level before (level 1.45) so we decide to go
for it. The paddlers are Paul, Anthony, Geoff, Steve, Bob,
Peter, Evan, Graham and me.
We get in at the road bridge
downstream of the National Park, avoiding the willows in the first
section. Val and Emily are our trusty shuttle
bunnies. The paddle is lots of fun. A series of
wave trains and holes to avoid. The weir catches a few
unawares but they manage to roll back up. We lost a boat
here last time and a swim could well result in a similar
situation. Pretty soon we are in Westerway and meeting up
with Val and Emily.
Click here to check out the paddle: http://www.
.com/watch?v=WYB890S7MEc
We
eat lunch on the bank and everyone is keen to paddle the next section
to Meadow Bank Road. We have done this section before but
at a lower level.
From Westerway the river flows
through farmland and is fairly flat and boring. The only
excitement is a portage around a weir. The gradient then
increases and the waves and holes increase also. The boring
‘farmland’ river is getting interesting. The river is
running through the trees and at times we find ourselves out of the
river course.
A second weir requires another
portage and we must take turns at getting back in our
boats. The practice is to re-group in the next main
eddy. Paul is leading the trip and disappears down the
river. At the next large eddy we all re-group. All
that is except Paul.
I’m starting to feel uneasy,
why has he continued on? We break out of the eddy and head
down. Not far downstream I realize that there is a big
rapid ahead and call for a hasty break out. It’s the Tyenna
Cruncher and it’s pumping. Paul is still no where to be
seen. I’m now getting very worried. I suspect
that he’s swimming. If he’s swimming he’ll be holding his
boat as he knows he’ll lose it otherwise.
Geoff and
I quickly portage the Cruncher and head off to search for Paul, while
the others also portage and follow after us. About 500
metres below the Cruncher we find Paul. He’s o.k. apart for
a sore thigh. He tangled with a tree soon after getting
back in his boat and swam, holding on to his boat. He was
swept over the Tyenna Cruncher and hit his thigh on a rock.
Finally he couldn’t hold the boat anymore and tried to jam it under a
branch. He still had his paddle but the boat was gone.
We are only about 2 k from the get out and Paul is on the
wrong side of the river to be able to walk to the road. We
give him a mobile phone and he heads off. The rest of us
continue the paddle.
About a k downstream we break out in a
large eddy. The rapid below looks a bit nasty.
While I’m looking at it I realize that there is something orange
through the trees downstream of us. I run the rapid and
break out into an eddy. Already in the eddy, upside down
but in one piece is Paul’s boat!
We ring Paul and tell him the
good news. We have found a boat and are happy for him to
borrow it! But we have Paul on one side and the boat on the
other. The river is running too swiftly and it is too wide
for either to get to the other side. Finally we admit
defeat and Evan and Bob carry Paul’s boat up to the road.
Paul must walk the rest of the way to the get out.
Click here to check out the paddle: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Bmq7NFAfJo
On
the way back to the camp we check out the level of the Styx at the
Glenora Bridge. It’s too high; we must find an alternative
for tomorrow’s paddle.
The next day, we head south.
We’ve decided to paddle the Picton River. We rendezvous
Greeveston bakery. From the tourist information centre we
hear that the Tahune air walk is closed due to flood
damage. The car park for the air walk is the get out point
for the Picton. Can we access the Picton? Is
the river too high? We head up to the Forestry Service
Office to find out what the situation is. We must have
looked like a deputation. As far as they know the road is
open and we should be able to access the Picton.
We arrive at
the air walk car park and walk down to the river. The Huon
River is running at 2.4 m and the rails on the bridge have been washed
away. There are large logs washed up on the banks and the
forestry service staff is making repairs. We just want to
make sure we can get out but the forestry people won’t let us near the
river.
We head up to the get in. The paddlers are
Graham, Paul, Anthony, Val, Emily, Peter, Evan, Steve, Bob, Geoff and
me. The Picton is a big wide river running through
spectacular rain forest. There are lots of wave trains and
some of the best surfing waves you’ll see.
At the biggest rapid
all the water funnels into the centre of the river creating a big
hole. The hole chewed up and spat out Anthony and had a
good gnaw at several others, who managed to roll back up.
Emily and Val decided that portaging was the best option.
Unfortunately Val ended up on the left bank and had to fight his way
through the jungle.
We surfed our way down the
river. The rapid under the bridge also provided some fun as
we punched through the stopper. Soon the Picton joined the
Huon and we were back at the air walk car park.
Fortunately the forestry staff had gone and we were able to get out by
the bridge.
Click here to check out the paddle: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WZscLVJ9bmU
The
next day we have two crews going to two rivers. One crew,
Geoff, Evan, Graham, Paul and me are making an early start and heading
to the Styx River. The level at the Glenora Bridge has
dropped and is now on the low side! We drive in along the
logging tracks to the get in.
It is good to be back on the Styx
after having to walk out last time. It’s a very pretty
river in a deep rainforest gorge. The rapids are fairly
continuous and we work our way down.
All is going well until
Paul swims. Geoff and I chase after his boat, knowing what
will happen if we don’t. We leave Graham and Evan to rescue
Paul. Twice I have his boat hooked up but constant rapids
make me let it go. Finally Geoff manages to get it over to
the bank and into a small eddy. Meanwhile Evan and Graham
are guiding Paul down the river. The only way down is for
him to swim. The cost of the dry suit is definitely looking
worth it!
Paul’s comment when he arrives is not to thank us for
saving his boat but to ask where his paddle is! It’s time
to test the club’s new split paddle. We continue on.
Not
far down the river Paul swims again. This time we manage to
rescue both the boat and paddle while Paul makes his way to an
eddy. While Paul is sorting himself out I see something
black floating down the river. It’s his lost paddle from
the first swim! We quickly grab it. Paul,
realizing how lucky he is, kisses a rock to thank the river
gods. The split paddle packed away we continue on.
We
come to the biggest rapid on this section, Volvo Rapid. The
rapid is long with a nasty hole in the middle and ends with a large
rock jammed with logs. It is do-able but a mistake could be
very nasty. After looking at the rapid for quite awhile we
decide that there is no option but to portage.
After Volvo the
intensity of the rapids eases but there still lots of fun rapids to
paddle. After one rapid, Geoff’s keen eyes spot a paddle
stuck in a tree. Seems other people have also had
difficulties on the Styx. The paddle is in good nick and
Geoff decides to tow it out.
We stop for lunch on a sunny grassy
spot. How lucky are we to find such a perfect spot to have
lunch. Apparently also perfect for leeches. The
leeches are the biggest ones I’ve ever seen. However they
don’t seem to be too quick at attaching themselves as Evan manages to
show them off to Graham. As we walk back to the boats I
find a leech on my neck and quickly brush it off. Graham is
so concerned about the leeches, that in his effort to check whether he
has any, he bumps his boat into the river. He has to
launch himself into the river to retrieve it.
Not long after
lunch we enter farmland and a series of weirs. Finally we
reach the bridge at Glenora and then the bridge at Bushy Park, the get
out point. It was a great paddle and great to finally
finish it after having to walk out last time due to a lost boat.
Click here to check out the paddle: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r-lY3a5XzmE
and here for the headcam view: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=65YXa5S0V1E
The
other crew paddled the upper section of the Tyenna again. This
time Val and Emily join in. After some lunch and foot bag we put
in just above the weir. With the water level a little lower than
the 2 days before, the trip was more relaxed and uneventful.
We
now head north to our base at Golden Valley, south of Deloraine, to
paddle the northern rivers. Jimmy and Catherine and their
friend Anne-Marie? join us after spending some time near Hobart.
The
first northern river is the wild water course on the Mersey
River. We break into two crews for the paddle.
I take the A Team and Jimmy the No. 1 Team. Paul has gone
to Launceston to pick up his car from the repairers but everyone else
is paddling.
The river is flowing well and it’s a fun
paddle. The waves at the slalom course are particularly
fun. However it’s a cool drizzly day and after one run I’m
happy to get changed and warm up. Geoff, Catherine, Jimmy,
Anne-Marie, and I decide to head down to the Forth River to check out
the access for tomorrow’s paddle. The others go for a
second run down the course.
Click here to check out the paddle: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K5I-ypOyqGQ
On
the second run Evan paddled his play boat and Emily was convinced to
try Evans jelly bean boat a Dagger Mamba. You’ll never want to go
back to your Feelfree 69 afterwards we said. Well how wrong can
you get. Emily and the Mamba were at 2 with each other.
After the second swim they agreed to a permanent separation on the
grounds of irreconcilable differences. By the time we get Emily
across to river left and a short walk back to the finish we find that
the boat has continued past the get out point.
Not knowing what
the river does below this point we do a quick reconnaissance drive down
stream to check out the river. The bush is so thick we can’t see
the water from the trees. We do find an access track though which
goes down to the lakes edge which the Mersey flows into. So back
to the get out point we go where Anthony, Evan and Bob put in to search
for and recover the missing boat. The river was pretty high on
the banks with not many eddies to speak off so it wasn’t a surprise
that the boat flowed all the way down into the lake. There we
found the boat full of water but in otherwise in top condition.
It was quite peaceful paddling on the lake. Well peaceful apart
from the sound of a revving Land Cruiser trying to get out of a bog
that is. Steve had backed the boat trailer down to the waters
edge so it would stand out to those on the water. Good idea in
theory but didn’t allow for the slippery gradient to get back
out. After deflating the tyres, unhooking the trailer and much
standing around coming up with bright ideas the car, trailer, boats and
people are recovered. Same could not be said for Steve’s
reputation.
After locating the access road and the get out point
at Lemonthyme Power Station for the Forth River the day before we were
pretty confident of a smooth trip down the Forth. The guide
books describe the access road as rough and recommend a four wheel
drive and chain saw. They have also described it as a
classic wilderness trip. We have 3 four wheel drives but no
chain saw. How bad can it be?
The road starts off
fine. After awhile the road deteriorates but is still
manageable. We then get to a rough creek
crossing. Peter looks a bit worried in the Subaru so we
leave it behind and load the gear and people into the two big four
wheel drives. However not far down the track we come to a
large tree blocking the access. A chain saw would have been
perfect about now.
The maps come out. We are still a
long way from the get in but only about 300 m away from the
river. There is no way we are going to get to the put in
but if we can get to the river we should still be able to at least
paddle the second gorge. A creek a short distance away
looks like it will give us access to the river. We get into
our paddling gear and head off down the track carrying our boats.
At
the creek we find that the bridge is out so we wouldn’t have got any
further even if the tree wasn’t there. We head in along and
in the creek. Only 300 metres but what a tough way to get
to a river. We drag, float, carry and finally rope up and
down to reach the river. The persevering paddlers are
Steve, Bob, Peter, Anthony, Paul, Graham and Alison. It is
getting late and we’re stuffed so we have a quick lunch before heading
off down the river.
The river is mainly grade 2 with a few
gravel races but there is a nice grade 3 rapid in the gorge which is
fun. All too soon we’re at the power station and the get
out. The level is minimum 1.66 at the gauge at the logging
track bridge. It’s taken us an hour to paddle
it. The access difficulty to the great paddling ratio makes
the Forth not one of my ‘must paddle again’ rivers.
Click here to check out the paddle: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ALJSeO45NU
The
next day we split into two groups. There is an opportunity
to paddle the Lea River. The Lea, site of the Lea Extreme
race, is a steep creek with a couple of grade 4 rapids.
We’ve found a guide to show us the lines so Geoff, Graham, Evan and I
are the ‘Lea Team’. The other crew, Anthony, Peter, Paul,
Bob and Steve are heading to the Ouse River. As we part
company Anthony wishes us ‘a bigger epic than them’!
We head
off, Emily with us to help with the shuttle and chill out.
The plan is to meet our guide, Harry, at Lake Gairdner. We
arrive at the lake at the appropriate time. No
Harry. After awhile we realize we’re in the wrong
place. We quickly drive to the right spot and meet Harry.
His
opening comment is, ‘I can’t see too many creek boats?’ Our
response, ‘Is that a problem?’ Harry, ‘Not if you’re good
paddlers.’ Our stress levels are rising as we drive to the
get in.
The river starts off as a mountain stream with small
easy rapids. Then the gradient increases and the rapids
begin. The first is the imaginatively named ‘First
drop’. Harry is a man of few words and gives us brief
instructions before disappearing down the 2 m drop. It’s a
drop into a hole and then a large drop. The instruction is
to boof the drop. Our boofs need a bit of work but we all
get down.
From there a multitude of rapids follow.
Harry knows every inch of the river and gives us very precise
instructions of the various moves. We boof and maneuver our
way down the river. We reach the first grade 4, the
interestingly named ‘Screaming Plastic Surgeons’. The line
twists around and then over a 1 metre drop, followed by a 3 metre drop,
which needs to be hit in the centre. A boof off the first
drop would be good. Harry, Evan and Graham enjoyed the ride
so much they carried their boats up for a second run.
‘Proctologist’s
Twist’ isn’t far away, another grade 4. This rapid requires
a move onto a shelf in the centre of the river. From there
you slide into a slop and then over the 4 metre drop. All
good fun.
By the end of the run our boofing had improved
considerably, which was good as the last rapid, ‘Ankle Breaker’
required a boof and a turn at the same time to avoid slamming into the
‘ankle breaker’ rock. After explaining the line Harry takes
another in order to try it out for next week’s Lea Extreme
race. He slams into the rock and his bulkhead gives
way! Better that than his ankles. It certainly
shows us the value of having a guide for a river like this.
We
paddle a short distance along the lake to where Emily is waiting with
the car. What an experience! While we ate lunch
and packed up, Harry did another run as training for the race.
Harry
is keen to visit a nearby winery in Wilmont so we join him.
It’s a very small winery run by a very interesting
character. The owner makes a great range of wines,
including various fruit wines. He also makes kirsch,
calvados and cider. Graham is keen on the cider and fills
his water bottle for a few dollars. We then head back to
camp to compare notes with the Ouse crew. We hadn’t had an
epic so what about them?
Click here to check out the Lea paddle: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h7adT8TTOIM
and here for the headcam view: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xw3zIpq_o-o
The
“A” team set off to paddle the River Ouse while those that didn’t make
the cut went off to paddle the Lea. The River Ouse is located in
the central highlands near the Great Lake. The coldest place in
Tasmania apparently which is probably why the Antarctica Training
Station is located there. We stopped in to see if we could borrow
a penguin to guide us down the river but alas they wouldn’t come out
and play, too cold.
We set off below the dam wall with 2
turbines running. The first few kilometres were grade 2 and
exposed to the wind making it impossible to keep fingers warm. As
the gradient and difficulty increased the river became more protected
from the wind. We had our fingers back. It didn’t help Paul
and Anthony though both swimming on the first decent grade 3
rapid. Paul’s hand was quite cut up and bruised and was in no
state to continue paddling. The road was only about 1 kilometre
away but it was hard work hauling the boat though the waist high sub
alpine vegetation.
The remaining 4 paddlers continued
down what was left of the river, keeping an eye out for the 8m weir at
the end. We didn’t want to get washed over it. There was no
chance of getting washed of the weir as nearly all the flow was being
diverted down a canal/race. It would have been pretty nasty going
down the race as there were several stoppers in it and low head
clearance. As it turned out we all dropped into a pool above the
race entrance and it was easily avoided.
Click here to check out the paddle: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=faQyGVr44IM
Finally
to our last day of paddling. The weather is fine and we opt
for an easy paddle to finish on. Graham and his family are
heading to Freycinet to enjoy another week in Tassie so we say good bye
to them. We head to the Leven River and the section between
Gunns Plains and Clarke Bridge. Paul and I lounge in the
sun on the bank while Catherine rides the car shuttle and the paddlers
enjoy the river.
After the paddle it’s down to Devonport and the
ferry back to Melbourne. As Geoff, Val, Paul and I wait in
the queue, in Paul’s recently repaired vehicle, it fails to
start! Peter, Anthony and Emily are behind us but they
don’t have any jumper leads. Steve does but they have
already gone through the security check. Bob volunteers to
‘run’ them up to us. This causes the security guards to
panic. After confirming that he wasn’t a terrorist Bob is
escorted up to where we are stuck. No luck with the jumper
leads. The engine is dead.
It’s tempting to leave
Paul to it and head on to the boat. But I don’t fancy
carrying my gear and boat. Fortunately at this stage the
security guards suggested that the ferry company could tow the vehicle
onto the ferry. Yes, anything to get on the
boat. After waiting for absolutely every other vehicle to
drive on to the ferry, they tow us. As they do so the
engine starts, looks like it’s the starter motor.
It’s been a
big week of paddling. We’ve paddled some new rivers and
enjoyed some old ones. We conquered the Styx and didn’t
walk out of any rivers. We didn’t lose any gear we didn’t
subsequently find and in fact we came home with more than we
left. But we still didn’t manage to paddle the North Esk
and another run down the Lea would be fun, perhaps there will have to
be a return visit?