Cadeppa and Hairies Upper Mary trip. (Belated)

[hairymick]

G'day guys. This is a little late but much has happened here in recent weeks and this is the first opportunity I have had to post.

After a few emails and phone calls, John turned up here one morning and after the obligatory cup of tea, we headed off down the Mary Valley for a couple of days camping and paddling in the upper reaches of what is, in my opinion, one of the nicest rivers we have in this area. The plan was to drive to a roadside park in the mountains near the small town of Kenilworth, then organise put ins and take outs from there.

The road trip is about 2.5 hours in duration and after a quick feed at a truck stop near Gympie, where we enjoyed a burger,

we and our cars were well fuels for the remaineder of the trip.

We left Johns car at the camp spot and drove about another 10 miles or so to the first put in near Connondale. This is about the very upper reach of the river that is paddleable. and we put in in a real nice little pond.

A few shots of the Great Man in these pristine waters.

And a couple of the waters we paddled.

more to come

 

[hairymick]

As the afternoon wore on and we paddled one lovely pond after another, interspersed with lots of small rapids we both began to wonder if we would make the take out before dark.

and John continued to impress the hell out of me with his prowess in a canoe that was never designed nor intended for this type of water. He negotiated technical sections with a style and confidence that I couldn't even come close to in my much more maneuverable craft. If you look closely in the second shot, you can just make out me and my boat firmly wedged in a strainer that he missed allmost completely.

As it turned out, we made the take out well after nightfall, negotiating the last couple of small rapids in the dark, assisted only by the light of the full moon.

Now to pitch our small tents, eat and rest for the following day which I for one was definately looking forward to.

 

[hairymick]

Day 2 dawned foggy with the promise of another great day on the water. I woke bright and early to try for some "arty" shots of the area.

Our little camp site.

After breakfast, we broke camp and then set off on the second leg of our little trip with the fog lifting. We even tried for some of our elusive Aussie Bass here but they didn't want to play on this day.

With a few stops to soothe our sore bums and the perrenial "cuppa".

 

[hairymick]

I take the liberty here of posting a sequence of John negotiating a tricky section here just to try to show the level of skill this man has. He was paddling a craft, 17 feet, 9 inches long, with minimal rocker and very limited maneuverability. It is in effect, a sea kayak or a sea, decked canoe and was never intended for this type of water.

 

[a Bald Cypress]

Some fine piccs there Mick.

Beautiful looking water.

A story in pictures. Just what is needed for those of us with public ed -u- ma - cation who have trouble reading the printed word. :lol:

 

[catfish]

hey mick & john hats off too you guys. mick that is some great looking water . i didn,t know you assuies had that kind of river. :wink: :lol: it looks like ours over here. mick about johns level of skill it doesn,t sound like it is his first rodeo. :wink: by the way mick what was you doing trying to hide from the camera? :mrgreen: :lol: :lol:

thanks for sharing .(cat)

 

[caddepa]

Good report, Mick, and what Photography! I had every intention of posting one myself, but had to buy a new computer and have not yet become proficient with Windows 7; not that I was ever proficient with any other version. I lost “everything” on the old computer and have to start from scratch, which at my age is a monumental task. Some day (?) I will post a full report on my Australia visit but for now will have to be content with a few comments.

The sandwich in photo #1 is not a prop. I had similar ones at several other locations. Simply order a burger with the works. The “works” includes an egg, cheese, onion, lettuce, peppers, thick slice of fried ham, red beet, carrots, special sauce, and of course a 1/2lb burger. Makes a Big Mack look like a Tabby Treat.

The Mary River is one beautiful stretch of water by any standard and I feel privileged to have paddled at least a small section (15 - 20 miles?). Not all rivers in Australia are navigable, not by a long shot!! Once beyond the east coast mountain range, one enters the dry zone (which is 80% of the country) and the rivers look more like this…

I spent 2 months driving through the Central, and Western, countryside and never wet a paddle. And that covers about the same square mileage as 2/3 of the USA. Much of it makes Death Valley look like an oasis. So when Mick offered the opportunity to paddle the Mary, I was there in a heartbeat. I will let the photos speak for it’s beauty.

I had to laugh at Mick’s account of how accomplished a white water paddler I am. Truth be known, neither of us are all that proficient! The deep scratches on both canoes will attest to that. The Mary is not more than Class 1+, or 2 rapids, but is a bit technical at this shallow water level. Some of the chutes are not more than 4ft wide, which doesn’t leave much room to maneuver a 17’ - 18’ canoe. Mick paddled one section the previous week and found the water level had dropped almost a foot since then.

I enjoyed taking the photo of Mick buried in that fallen tree, brush pile. The only reason he went so deep into the brush is because I was the lead canoe and had plowed into the same obstruction, which cleared a path for him to penetrate even deeper. After freeing myself I took a position downriver to observe/photograph him. Now, I could have warned him…. could have….but what fun would that have been? Further downriver we came across a reminder of how dangerous the Mary can be at higher water levels. Did that guy get out alive? Mick ran that section without incident.

Australia is truly a scenic country with a diverse landscape, but one of the most memorable highlights is our trip on the Mary River. Thanks, Mick!!

I might add that another Southernpaddler, Dave Wallace, wanted to introduce us to some paddling opportunities further north, but heavy rains made it impossible. Gives me an excuse to return.

Can someone tell me hhow to upload photos using Photobucket?

 

[Jimmy W]

Can someone tell me hhow to upload photos using Photobucket?

In Photobucket, under Share, you want to copy the IMG code and post it here. If you click on the code in Photobucket it will automatically copy to your computer and then you can paste it into the forum. It seems that on most images you were instead copying the HTML code and adding the

to it. Actually the first image was done correctly except that it had two img tags.
The correct form should be

.
That is a pretty river.

 

[Jimmy W]

In order to show the example of the image code in the above post, I disabled the BBCode therefore the quote feature was disabled also.

 

[hairymick]

G'day John,

Thanks for the very kind words mate. you taught me more than I think you can know on the couple of trips we did.

It was my pleasure to share parts of my country with you.

I have taken the libety of finding your photobucked album and will post some of your images below. I think they are pretty self explanitary.

 

[caddepa]

Thanks to both Jimmy and Mick. I did manage to get one photo up (after only 2 hours of cussing ), but I really don't know how I did it. Subsequent attemps result in the long "paste" that doesn't work. Guess I'll stick to paddling, fishing and sailing.

 

[tx river rat]

Mick and John
Thanks for the post,looks like you had a grest time. That river is very much like streches of the Brazos I paddle. it throws just about any kind of water at you . Makes a fun day.
Ron

 

[mike]

Great report and pictures!

What the heck is that blue and white thing in the 3rd picture in the last group posted?

Mike

 

[oldsparkey]

Thanks to both Jimmy and Mick. I did manage to get one photo up (after only 2 hours of cussing ), but I really don't know how I did it. Subsequent attemps result in the long "paste" that doesn't work. Guess I'll stick to paddling, fishing and sailing.

:lol: :lol: :lol:

John........

This is what you used for the one picture of the dry riverbed to post it.

http://i739.photobucket.com/albums/xx34 ... 260179.jpg

The picture of mick you posted had this ....I got rid of the unnecessary junk ( in bold print ) in it to make it work.

<a%20href="http://s739.photobucket.com/albums/xx34/caddepa/Mary%20River%20AU/?action=view&current=P4290776.jpg"%20target="_blank"><img%20src="http://i739.photobucket.com/albums/xx34/caddepa/Mary%20River%20AU/P4290776.jpg"%20border="0"%20alt="Photobucket"></a>

So it looked like this..... then with the img at each end it produces the image or img.
http://s739.photobucket.com/albums/xx34 ... 290776.jpg

Chuck.........

 

[Jimmy W]

Great report and pictures!

What the heck is that blue and white thing in the 3rd picture in the last group posted?

Mike

Canoe

 

[mike]

Ah see! Hope no one was in it when it wrapped around that tree......

Mike

 

[graybeard]

From that picture, I'm hoping the worst they got out of it was a long walk back.

 

[caddepa]

The "Blue and white thing" is a canoe that wraped around a tree at higher water levels. Australia is a country of extremes; from dry river beds to a raging torrent (sometimes in a matter of hours). Road flooding is very common.

 

[catfish]

thanks agin john and mick. great looking pics. mick are there any fish in that river?