Sasquatch 16.5 In the Upper Mary River.

[hairymick]

G'day guys. I just got back from a few days paddling and camping in the upper reaches of our Mary River.(South East Queensland, Australia)

Some images of this magical stretch of river.

The put in at the junction where Little Yabba Creek meets The Mary. The first day, I put in here and paddled up stream a few miles, dragging her up some real nice rapids along the way. The boat works really well against a reasonable current and I had no difficulty in working the little eddies up into the very upper reaches of this sacred river.





About 5 miles upstream from the put in




Lazy Man's Portage





All too soon the afternoon came to a close and it was time to play in the smallish rapids heading down stream.



I was very pleased with the way she handled these. Every time I take this boat out, I find something more to love about her.

[olsnappa]

G'day Mick.
Nice photos....Looks like a beautiful place to get away from it all
........and crikey!!... She's a smart looking boat!

[hairymick]

I camped the night at the put in, and in the following dawn, paddled down stream a few miles,running some bigger and more intense rapids along the way


and some real nice calm patched in between.



Some kids paddled down here the previous afternoon and spent the night fishing.



and I saw my first Platypus for the day. I only had a wide angle lense on my camera at the time so there was insufficient zoom to get in real close. He is the smudge near the centre of this pic.



I have only seen two of these little fellers in the wild before in my life. In the next hour, I saw another 6!
I paddled downstream for about another hour, pulled in to the bank for a cup of tea and the return back to the put in.



Even the cows like my boat!



The purpose of this trip was to recce this part of the river prior to bringing a friend for her first paddle the following day.

[hairymick]

G'day Snaps,

thanks mate. this is the first real paddle I have done in a long time. I have to say that my passion for the caper is well and truly back!!

Now, where was I?

Oh yeah, the following day, we put in at the old bridge upstream from my original put in



paddled down stream and hit our first obsticale on the way. We got hung up on a stump, mid stream but managed to get out of it relatively unharmed It was entirely my fault in that I mis-judged the strength of the current and didn't allow for the reduced maneuverability of the boat with the extra weight. and had a cuppa on the bank to celibrate our lucky escape.

The Lovely Miz Andi. (The stumps we hung up on are in the background)



We continued along downstream, playing in the rapids and as we paddled past my previous put in, there was a bunch of blokes in canoes and kayaks making ready to head off downstream. Two ladies were infront of us on sit on tops and one had a small boy riding on the back. We quickly moved past them in the still water patches after saying G'day and we came to a very tight patch at the end of one of these stillwater stretches. I studied it for a while and the more I looked at it the more frightened I became. The water dropped about 2 metres in a distance of about 10 metres, through some overhanging vines and sticks and then turned sharply left with a steep bank on the right hand side that was liberally littered with strainers and tree stumps.

Never letting brains get in the way of a very bad decision, we decided to go for it and charged the drop (Bloody stupid) and allmost instantly, were hung up on the strainers at the bottom of the drop. (did I mention that I have allmost no white water experience) The boat quickly filled with water and all our belongings went sailing off into the distance. Luckily, the boat came free and we were able to get it to the other bank along with our precious cameras. The two ladies successfully made the drop and very kindly paddled off down stream to retrieve the rest out our stuff.

While were were calming our shattered nerves and inspecting each others cuts, scrapes and bruises, we could hear the blokes in the canoes and kayaks making their approach and they seems completely as stupid as I was. I just had time to grab my camera to catch the carnage! (next post)

[hairymick]

There were 3 open canoes, (fibreglass) and a bunch of sit in and sit on top plastic jobs

First canoe



Second canoe


Most of the kayaks faired little batter



Second canoe, going, going, gone


A dead canoe from the previous day




Time for another cuppa and very nervously, head off again. We let the crew of blokes take the lead and we were very careful from here on down. The two ladies on the sit on tops paddled with us too.

[hairymick]

The countryside changed dramatically every few hundred metres, from lush green banks,



to heavy old growth, sub-tropical rainforest,


and around every corner, was a new challenge,



and new rapids were never far away




and then back to more rain forest,

Until finally, we came across, probably the most dangerous strainer of all. Paddling down a long fast patch and into the sun, we just had time to notice this,


Strung across the width of the river. The bottom strand being a mere 10 inches above the water. We got out and walked the canoe under it and then warned the two ladies following about it and held it up for them to paddle under.

Finally we pulled in to a sandbar near the snall town of Kenilworth





and that was more than enough for one day.

[PiratePete]

Top series of posts Mick.

I paddle the Mersey River in Tassie a fair bit with mt 15 yo daughter & we usually see 6 to 10 platypus a trip. They are magic little animals. When I build our Wadefish Im going to call Cates "Platypus" & have the logo worked out to put under the epoxy when she is being built. she had one swim up under her kayak a few weeks ago & as she pointed in the water where it would be it actually surfaced under her hand. I dont know who was more surprised . . . . . but after a few seconds Cate realised she had just done some thing that only a very select few would do. Touch a Platypus in the wild.

I have come across an electric fence wire across the river just like that barbed wire!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[confusedSea]

Strung across the width of the river. The bottom strand being a mere 10 inches above the water. We got out and walked the canoe under it and then warned the two ladies following about it and held it up for them to paddle under.

Don't know about you guys on the flip side of the globe, but that's not legal here. I'd have cut it on each bank then rolled it up and taken it home, then called the DNR about the whole thing.

In terms of the wildlife, of course we don't have Platypus here, but if your real quiet and real patient (and with as bad as my fly fishing skills are, I have to be patient) around here you can see river otters and martins out on the rivers.

jtz

[Bellybuster]

what a great report. You seriously have a beautiful piece of the world to call home.
The platypus....what a wonderful creature. Looks like it was made up out of leftovers. I would love to see some pics of them in the wild

[PiratePete]

what a great report. You seriously have a beautiful piece of the world to call home.
The platypus....what a wonderful creature. Looks like it was made up out of leftovers. I would love to see some pics of them in the wild

Here are some we took a few weeks ago.

They are only the size of a small cat (if that) & are hard to get a good photo of as they are about 3/4 under water even when swimming on the top.





This is what you usually get to see.



Hope Im not highjacking this thread.