Cirque 2 Sea Day 21 : 21-08-2016

The start of the final week has begun and I still have a long way to paddle to reach the open ocean south of Hobart. But things will speed up now that I'm well and truly out of the mountains and are about to get to the meandering lowland plains. If you look at the map you'll notice that soon the river will be free of power stations and will start to wiggle it's way through farmland before passing the town of New Norfolk and then the open estuary around Hobart. 

So much still to discover, we'll see what we can fit in. Today I saw my first rabbit for the expedition. It was jumping across a grassy paddock beside Lake Repulse.  In the reedy bank where I pulled in to watch all I could hear was the chirping of frogs. So noisy! At the end of the lake I had to carry Dave the RC around to the river below the power station. Again, there was an impressive waterfall over the spillway as the river system continues to be overloaded from recent rain. 

I put back in to Cluny Lagoon and drifted on the current from the station for a short while before it petered out into flat water. The first houses since Wayatinah popped into sight among the cleared paddocks. Only 4 or 5 but that's a change from further up river. I'm boiling my drinking water now too. With different land use in the catchment there's a good chance the water could carry microbes that will give you a stomach ache or worse.

Tomorrow I'm planning on getting right down to the end Lake Meadowbank. If you're a whiz on Google Earth you might be able to use the measuring tool to see how far I'll travel tomorrow. 

A trip back in time: Tasmanian Mail ‘Lake St Clair to Glenora: A hazardous canoe trip. Unexplored country traversed.’

A mate of mine put me onto an interesting article about 2 men and their home-made canoe. It turns out that nearly 100 years ago a very adventurous Ken Shoobridge and Stanley Watchorn travelled from Lake St Clair to Glenora in a canva clad 15ft long huon pine canadan canoe weighing 100lbs. Here is a snippet of the attached article.

Sunday being a fine, bright, warm day we decided to start on the great adventure, and packing gear, etc., into the canoe at 3 p.m. we set off across the lake for the river. About two miles paddling brought us to the river where we received our first surprise. Immediately on leaving the lake the river plunges down a cataract, and in the space of 100 yards must fall at least 40ft. We negotiated this rapid in great style, the canoe being all and more than we expected. The way she shot through openings between rocks, and bumped over places where there seemed les than half enough water to float her, was very encouraging, and put us in great fettle for any more rapids we might meet with. The foot of the first rapid to the Derwent bridge (about three miles) there is no serious obstruction, and we went gaily along at a great pace, arriving at the Derwent bridge at about 6 o’clock, where we left an agreed signal to the other party who were to bring the cars home next day. We went on for about two or three miles, then camped in open button grass country. The first night on the hard ground went hardly and slowly, so bright and early next morning we were off.

River Life Poster winners: School_Zoe and Swiftie 13

Cirque 2 Sea is a partnership project between the Bookend Trust, the Derwent Estuary Program and our supporters.