Down the Denison

We’d given ourselves 5 days before we were due to meet the Stormbreaker at Sir John Falls on the Gordon for a lift across Macquarie Harbour to Strahan. We ended up doing it in 4 leaving us a full day to relax at the falls.

Day 1

We were kindly dropped off in the mud at the far side of Lake Gordon after a glassy crossing in a parent’s boat. We had some lunch, got a group photo, nervously laughed about the size and weight of our gear, drank the beverages that no longer seemed worth carrying, then stopped laughing when we actually had to lift our packs and finally set off into the scrub.

We arrived at the edge of the Denison River right on dusk. The route was better marked than I expected which just left us having to contend with the surprising heat of the afternoon, our ludicrous packs and their tendency to snag every passing bit of scrub. The sound and sight of the river was very welcome after having to crawl/climb/contort ourselves and packs through the very last section of jumbled forest and mud down to river level. That just left dinner and bed to round off the first day.

Day 2

We were excited to have the boots packed deeply away and be on the water the next morning. The sky was blue and the day was promising to be warm again as we slid our loaded boats onto the slow-moving tannin-stained conveyor belt that had quietly ambled passed our camp all night. The river was rather low so there was a bit of scraping, leading and hoisting as we navigated the boats around shaley corners and over fallen trees. It didn’t take long to spot our first Huon Pines with their cascading foliage suspended just above the still river eddies. Their numbers increased until a GPS check confirmed we’d entered the Olegas Tuchanas Huon Pine Reserve. Up until this point the reserve was just a dark green square on a map for me, seemingly in the middle of nowhere which had sparked my curiosity for many years prior. We left our boats on a pebbly spit and wandered away from the river for a short way between the Pines. These pines were both more plentiful and larger than I’ve ever witnessed and stood ever so straight. Thankfully preserved for many more thousands of years to come.

Our warm blue-sky day had moved on without us so it was time to dig out the usual tassie-river apparel before setting off again. We headed for the narrow gap slicing through the high ridges either side of the river valley. This was Marriotts Gorge. With the low water levels the Gorge was slow going. At this level many obstacles were log chocked or with awkwardly placed boulders where we decided it wasn’t worth risking boat damage so there was a lot of scouting and portaging. We still hadn’t quite perfected our portaging techniques of heavy loaded boats so this took a lot of time.

Despite the long summer days we were in a cycle of short flat water paddle around a bend only to come up against another obstacle when the light and to some extent our patience was dwindling.  We’d been good at communicating and keeping the group together up until this point but cracks in our teamwork were starting to show so it was time for camp and dinner. The best we found with what we had to work with was essentially a steep dry tributary with enough rocky tiers to park a few bivys and a hammock, that’ll do.

Day 3

We finished off the Gorge the next morning without a hitch, passing the aptly named Freedom Gates and the idyllic campsite at Roslyn’s Pool that we’d been aiming for the day before. The river opened out for a while. Above the tree canopy we could see the remote ridgelines of the deep Southwest Wilderness all around us. They appeared to pen us in, blocking the way forward and obscuring the route we’d already passed through but with a lot of twisting and turning the river found a way. The weather began to turn as the banks steepened and we entered the Denison Gorge.

The Denison gorge is characterized by a few features leading into one long necessary high-level portage where the river completely vanishes under boulders the size of family homes. After a while of ferrying gear through the scrub the portage duly deposited us and our deflated boats 20feet above the water at the other end of the boulders.

It was enjoyable paddling from here, passing between a number of spectacular outcrops marking the end of the Denison Gorge. Again it was getting late in the day so we welcomed word of a campsite near an old Hydro hut that was in the process of being reclaimed by the rainforest. We tied up the boats for the night just as the golden light hung in the tree canopy and a thin layer of fog sat on the still water in the cool air.

Day 4

It rained a lot overnight and it was still raining when we set off the next morning. Our low water trip was no more as there was a noticeable increase in river height where we left the boats tied for the night. This matched the forecast and we were glad to be through the gorges as planned. With the help of the extra water, it didn’t take long until we met the mighty Gordon. We’d toiled with idea of attempting to paddle a short way up the Gordon in the hope of glimpsing the infamous Gordon Splits. These ideas were quickly dropped once seeing the pace of the Gordon effortlessly sweeping away the comparative trickle coming from the Denison.

It continued to rain a lot that day, giving us a true authentic west coast experience. Not to be overshadowed, the wind also made us aware of its presence. Out of the wind we were carried down the Gordon at around 7kph! In the wind we were quickly held at a standstill and had to resort to edging along the river banks taking any shelter we could. There must have been some substantial localised rain over the Sprent River catchment, it was a force to be reckoned with as it thundered into the Gordon as a line of standing waves perpendicular to our path. It made for a slightly nervous ferry glide in front of the undercut limestone cliffs as it was brought around by the Gordon and joined us in our journey downstream.

It didn’t feel like too long and we were paddling in as close under Sir John Falls as it thundered out of the cliff above like I’ve never seen before.

Day 5

We’d got to Sir John Falls a whole day before our arranged pick up time from the Stormbreaker so we had a relaxed day around the hut before our ride home.