With Thailand a distant memory, and only a few
white water trips on the Collie to keep a hand in, the festive season
was upon us. It looked like the end of white water paddling for
another season.
But then the email came around: Flood warning on the
Murchison!
The river was rising, and should be a ‘goer’ in around a week - so be
ready to go at short notice! Having missed out last year I
didn’t want to miss out this time, there’s no knowing when it would be
paddlable again. Those in the know pointed us to BOM’s Emu
Springs river monitoring station, and the graphical display
of the
river's state. Those with experience said we wanted a level of
1 – 2 metres, with the river falling. That way the trees, dead
kangaroos, cows and other flood debris would be long gone! It
seems that at Moderate and Major flood levels, equal to 6 – 8 metres on
the gauging station, the river while BIG is generally washed out and
less technical. So while providing a good fast rollercoaster
ride there isn’t much to ‘play’ on. With Emu Springs
consulted daily it was clear that the river peaked on Boxing Day at
just over 6 metres. The printout of the graph was
then used to extend the falling line to try and judge when the river
would be at its optimum 1 - 2 metre level. We decided this
would be just after New Year. The call went out, and on New
Year's day ten kayakers headed for Kalbarri. Our aim was to
paddle the gorge the following two days, and then return
home.
We met up at Ross Graham Lookout early the following morning and
organized the long car shuttle to the half way point at Z
Bend. We had ten in the group, five river runners in
‘creek’ boats, and five play boaters. Our river runners group
was all Murchison virgins. The play boaters had all done the
river several times before and were eager for action. They
set off while the car shuttle was being completed, with plans for us
all to meet at the first big play wave.
The river is quite wide at the Ross Graham put in, and in places we
were paddling through the tops of trees, with our paddles snagging on
submerged trees, definitely not a place to go for a swim. The
water was a deep red brown color due to the amount of silt it was
carrying. This makes reading the ‘white’ water much more
difficult, as the changes in color one expects with normal river water
is lost in the more uniform red foam.
Serpent's Tail
surf waves.
Never knowing what was around the bend we paddled with
caution. The term ‘dinosaur paddler’ comes into play on
rivers like this. You see a horizon line in front of you,
obviously a drop, and so paddle slowly towards it extending your neck
as much as you can to try and see what’s over the edge. If
you can’t see or don’t like what you see then it’s a quick sprint for
the bank. A true dinosaur paddler – ‘long neck and no brain’
just extends their neck and paddles straight over the
lip! Having paddled a few drops on sight and liking
what we saw, we eventually caught up with the play boaters.
They were on the left bank inspecting a long wave train rapid –
Serpents Tail, or more to the point, inspecting the potential of the
big play waves in the middle, and the consequences of a swim if you got
it wrong. It all looked good and so we spent some time
surfing the waves and running the big wave train down the
middle. As we river runners became bored we decided to leave
the play boaters and headed off down. We
were now on our own as none of us had paddled this river
before. We knew the take out was at Z bend on river left, and
that there were a few rapids we might want to inspect on the way. But
that was all the knowledge we had, so some critical decisions would be
needed. We ran quite a few big drops on sight, without the
need to stop and inspect. Our confidence was
growing. We came round one corner and there was a river wide
horizon line, I paddled closer and closer, neck extended but still
couldn’t see the bottom, or any spray or wave peaks that would indicate
the features. So a quick signal to exit river left, and we all PLF’d to
the bank for a closer Iook.
Everything funneled into a narrow shoot down the middle, with some big
exploding waves at the bottom followed by a shallow gorge
below. The shoot was OK but the waves looked menacing, and
the shallow gorge below had sheer rock walls that were sure to be
undercut, so not the place for a swim. Yvonne decided to
walk. Jason our kiwi extreme boater went first and made it
look easy. I followed and being conscious of the exploding
waves at the bottom of the shoot went too far right and punched through
into a micro eddy. But there was no way I was going to break
back into the main flow through the exploding waves, so I decided to
exit and put back in at the eddy below. But it gave me the
chance
to
video Rob’s run. He made it through the exploding waves only
to be knocked over below, after a couple of attempts to roll he was
swimming! Fortunately he stayed down the middle avoiding the
undercut walls of the shallow gorge. Yvonne and Jason fished
him out, and it was now my turn to get back into the main flow and join
them below. Getting into my boat in the surging eddy
suggested that exiting would be far more difficult than the entry.
Thankfully I managed to punch through the eddy line on the third
attempt
and ran the main flow to the rest of the team waiting
below. This had been Sharks Tooth Rapid.
Shark's Tooth
rapid.
Together again we continued down the river, and through some of the
classic sandstone gorges that the Murchison is famous
for. There were plenty of rapids to keep us
entertained, but none of them had us sprinting to the bank for a closer
look. Glenn who had recently paddled some big volume water in
Nepal only a few months before, was full of confidence and really
enjoying the river and being out in front.
As the gorge narrowed and the walls closed in, another horizon line
appeared. Hmmm nothing was visible immediately below and
there were no tell-tail signs of wave spikes to indicate a wave
train. It seemed to suggest a steep drop. So I
started to head for the bank for a look. However Glenn didn’t
follow me but kept paddling towards the horizon. Over he went
and disappeared. It seemed an age before I caught a glimpse
of him way over on the left, paddling hard. He was OK but
must have had an encounter with a stopper which had held him
up. Jason followed slightly more to the right of centre, and
over the horizon he went. I could just see the top of his
helmet which momentarily stopped, and then he was his away. I
turned to Rob and Yvonne and yelled that there must be a stopper below
the horizon and they needed to paddle hard. Over I went and
sure enough there was a big river wide stopper, but following Jason’s
line I managed to find the break in the stopper and punched through
easily. As I turned to watch the others I was knocked over by
a big breaking wave. Thankfully I rolled up, only to be
knocked over again. But my roll was working, and I was up
again and making for the slack water below where Glenn and Jason where
waiting. Rob and a wide eyed Yvonne joined us. We
exchanged stories, and agreed that perhaps we should have looked at
it! It turned out that this was Z bend rapid, and the
playboat boys, who knew the river, had all got out above, and looked at
it from the bank. They decided that a walk was the safest
route down.
Being on a high from our success we continued down river and turned the
corner into the next gorge. There was a whistle blast from
Rob and Yvonne who were at the back, and as I tuned to see what the
problem was I could see the Z bend look out high above the river behind
them. Bugger - we had gone too far, and unfortunately we had
run one more rapid which meant we couldn’t paddle back. Rob
and Yvonne managed to get to the bank, while the three of us scoured
the sheer sandstone walls for a possible get out. There was
one small ledge which we decided was the only option. We got
our boats onto the small ledge and then had a grade 11 rock climb up to
the main half way ledge of the gorge. Fortunately the rock
was dry and once on the ledge I lowered my throw rope to bring up
Glenn. Jason stayed at the bottom and tied the kayaks on,
while Glenn and I hauled them up to the safety of our ledge.
We left the kayaks on the ledge, climbed the easy gully and made our
way
back to the others. We could see the playboat boys on the
bank further up the gorge directly below the Z bend look out.
I tried to make a mental picture of the spot for next time, though I
think Z bend rapid will be enough of a signal for future
trips. It was a steep and sweaty trek back to the cars,
enough to make us decide a hotel bed a shower and a good meal was what
we needed, rather than more mozzie infested camping.
Day two and we were back at the Z bend look out, but this time it was a
shorter car shuttle to Natures Window, so we had a shorter wait for
the drivers. Another trek down into the gorge and after some
more nifty rope work we had our kayaks back on the small ledge that we
escaped to the day before. With everyone on the water we were ready to
roll. This time we paddled as a group. After the
excitement of the first day we were getting used to the volume of the
water and its chocolate brown color. We ran everything on
sight until another tell-tale horizon line grabbed our
attention. The playboat boys said it was Killer Fang
Falls. A quick bank inspection showed us the line between the
fangs, with some nasty consequences if you went too far right at the
bottom. But we all made it down safely. More tight
gorges, a pleasant lunch stop, but no major rapids to slow
progress. There were a few play waves that provided
entertainment, and one excellent wave train that provide some steep
surf waves with friendly eddies to enable you to paddle back upstream
and try them again. The playboat boys were in heaven!
Killer Fang
Falls.
Mindful that we still had the notorious walk out to Natures Window and
the car park, with heavy creek boats on our shoulders, our select team
pressed on. The gorge started to open out and high up on
river left we could eventually see Natures Window. Hmm – this
was going to hurt! First we had calf deep mud, then
a couple of centimetres of greasy oozing mud, and then the steep ledged
rock slope up to the window. Time for congratulations and a
photo call. By the time we were ready for the one, or was it
a two kilometre walk to the car park, the playboat boys had joined
us. Being young and fit and with play boats weighing around
10 kilos less than ours they disappeared up the track. The
final carry up the steps to the car park was too much; I dropped the
boat a sat on it gasping. But a passing tourist took
pity
grabbed the end of my boat and helped me to the top. Job done!
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Watch out for
trees.
Kayak hauling.
The Creek
Boaters.
The Gorge.
No-name rapid.
Looking back
to Z Bend.
Get out of
that!
Lunch stop,
day 2.
Surfer's
heaven.
Martin on the
last surf wave.
So just the long drive back to Perth to look forward to, and plenty of
time to develop the tales of ‘daring do or die’! The river
was a great paddle and I certainly want to do it again, if only I can
put out of my mind the heat, the mozzies and that nightmare climb out
at the end! Not sure I would have managed it had the sun been in a
cloud free sky!
For a short
video of the adventure check out
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5s-j_K3iKGE
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