The Plan
To paddle a Mirage double sea kayak from Port Welshpool to the north-east corner of Tasmania. To see the type of kayak
http://www.mirageseakayaks.com.au/mirage730double.htm
We head to Victoria on Spirit of Tas on the evening of 27th of December in my car. My dad, Tony is coming as well to bring the car back.
On the morning of 28 December we drive to Port Welshpool Caravan Park (near the Pier where we start).
On the morning of 29th of December - weather permitting - we will load the kayak to head out, mid-morning with an outgoing tide to head down the eastern side of Wilson's Prom toward Refuge Cove. If the wind is favourable we will get there that same day. If not, we will camp part way down the Prom and stay at Refuge Cove the next night - as that is the point that we will leave from to head on the 50km approx paddle out to Hogan Island - at dawn.
Paddle legs:
1. Port Welshpool to Refuge Cove - 48km approx
2. Refuge Cove to Hogan Island - 50-52km approx
3. Hogan Island to Erith Island - 42km approx
4. extra days at Erith/Dover/Deal Islands exploring the islands
5. Winter Cove, Deal Island to Killiecrankie - 60km approx
Once on Flinders, we will work out the course depending on the wind and weather and finish at Little Musselroe Bay by 15th of January - leaving enough time to allow for bad weather and exploring - 160km approx down the western side visiting some islands.
We will get our weather forecasts using my telstra next g phone (when I walk up the hills on the islands as well as using my satellite phone if I can't get a next g signal. I will also listen to abc radio victoria initially then abc tassie.
I will try and update this report during the trip using my phone but typing reports with a numeric keypad is a bit tiresome.
Merry Christmas & Happy New Year
from matthew watton.
18 September 2010
12 March 2010
Huon River - Tahune - training
After a sleep in (I am on holidays from work), I left home at midday to drive down to Huonville for some kayak training. The state championships for wildwater are coming up next week on the upper Mersey River. I don't have a proper DR boat and only have a plastic wavehopper, so I loaded it onto the car and headed off.
I was thinking of taking the wavehopper to the Mersey just for some experience until I get a real DR kayak.
I initially drove to the Huon River at Judbury and was going to head up river for a few hours and then back down to the car, but when I got there I decided to continue to Southwood.
At Southwood there were signs saying 'Tahune Air Walk 14km'. I decided to continue there and paddle upstream from there instead.
I crossed over the bridge heading for Tahune and was surprised that the next sign said 'Tahune Air Walk 15km'. The road actually took about 35km because Edwards Road (forestry road) was closed and there was a big detour.
When I arrived at the Tahune Air Walk area there is a big boom gate blocking the road where you could previously drive to the river edge. There was a sign on the boom gate that it would be locked at 5pm. It was now about 2pm so I opened the boom gate and drove to the river.
As I unloaded the kayak a forestry worker came over telling me to take my car back out. I explained about the sign saying it was open until 5pm but they were incapable of understanding english.
After moving my car and having another argument with another forestry spastic I got onto the river.
I headed up for 4.5km in my wavehopper to Riveau rapids. It took a fair bit of effort to get up most of the rapids in the slow wavehopper but it was a quick trip back down.
Overall it was a long drive but an enjoyable paddle on a beautiful river.
I was thinking of taking the wavehopper to the Mersey just for some experience until I get a real DR kayak.
I initially drove to the Huon River at Judbury and was going to head up river for a few hours and then back down to the car, but when I got there I decided to continue to Southwood.
At Southwood there were signs saying 'Tahune Air Walk 14km'. I decided to continue there and paddle upstream from there instead.
I crossed over the bridge heading for Tahune and was surprised that the next sign said 'Tahune Air Walk 15km'. The road actually took about 35km because Edwards Road (forestry road) was closed and there was a big detour.
When I arrived at the Tahune Air Walk area there is a big boom gate blocking the road where you could previously drive to the river edge. There was a sign on the boom gate that it would be locked at 5pm. It was now about 2pm so I opened the boom gate and drove to the river.
As I unloaded the kayak a forestry worker came over telling me to take my car back out. I explained about the sign saying it was open until 5pm but they were incapable of understanding english.
After moving my car and having another argument with another forestry spastic I got onto the river.
I headed up for 4.5km in my wavehopper to Riveau rapids. It took a fair bit of effort to get up most of the rapids in the slow wavehopper but it was a quick trip back down.
Overall it was a long drive but an enjoyable paddle on a beautiful river.
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