Thomson Autumn Packraft

Perhaps the last lovely canoeing day of 2021’s autumn. Time to spend a few hours on one of my favourite rivers. As I mentioned in this post Thomson River Packrafting Day Trip you can enjoy a number of different day trips on this beautiful river if you haven’t enough time for a multi-day trip like this Only the Moon and Me or How Green was My River. But you should some time.

I have just installed a new motorbike carrier on our old Disco so I was all ready to try it out on a beautiful 26C autumn day with .21 metres of water at Coopers Creek near the minimum – though I have been down the river enjoyably albeit with many scrapes at .18!

I stopped well back Probably nearly 2 km from the end of the track as I do not fancy riding down really steep sections (old bones break too easily) or the difficulties one can encounter 4WDing back up them, so I parked my (Yamaha 225cc) motorcycle here on the Mitchell Creek Track.

This canoe trip takes about three hours. It took me about an hour to get from Cowwarr Weir to the river and about half an hour to go back from there for my bike.

As you can see the track becomes pretty steep after this.

At the end there is a bulldozer ‘track’ all the way to the river. Someone (not me) needs to clear it some more.

It is a bit rough and steep in places but if I can manage I’m sure you can.

At the bottom is a beautiful campsite amongst the cottonwoods. Just the sort of place for a Wilderness Hut!

These beautiful cottonwoods are such an important feature of the river. There must be nearly a dozen bends along the river which has a fine display of these magnificent trees like this.

Fairly glowing in the autumnal sunlight. There used to be some magnificent willows too which assured a splendid cool refuge on a very hot day but worry-worts have forced their removal. I do my best to replant them when I get the chance!

This is the wonderful swimming hole in front of the poplars.

A few minutes setting up and I am ready to sail into the sunset (well actually I am heading East, but it is the sunset of my life. I have certainly had my three score years and ten – and then some!)

I do so love Tennyson’s great poem, ‘Ulysses’, don’t you?

“for my purpose holds
To sail beyond the sunset, and the baths
Of all the western stars, until I die…

To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.”

After a small drop on the bend there is a long limpid pool surrounded by ‘jungle’ There used to be a wallow on each side of the river here. I often used to hear two sambar stags challenging each other from opposite banks.

Then (after about twenty minutes) we come to the first of the Grade 3 rapids on this section of the river. Below is the last stage of the Triple Stager.

And here is a small video of it. You should hear it roaring when it is working properly!

Then there is a lovely long down hill run of more than a kilometre followed by a right hand bend after which we come to the second of the Grade 3 rapids, the Boulder Rapid so called because a huge boulder practically blocks the river.

You should check all of these rapids out before you venture down them as they can have trees hung up in them like this in the Boulder’s portage – if you are a sissy!.

I encountered this one at the end of the Gorge on my last trip on the river – you have to watch out. People have died on this river.

The Boulder rapid.

And here is a small video of that one too.

Magnificent!

Another few minutes brings us to The Chute rapid where the whole river is forced through this 2 metre cleft in the rocks. You fair scoot through here when the river is really working!