Last weekend we again completed one of our favourite sections on the Wonnangatta River in the new Double Packraft: Bullock Flat to Black Snake Creek. We never tire of this marvelous river.
Taking into account the long car-shuttle (from home for us – over 3 1/2 hours each way) we usually choose to do this over three days (two nights).
The best height is over 1.8 metres on the Waterford gauge (this time it was 1.82) and would be better still at 1.9 as the river is silting up (due to ‘green environmental vandalism practices: willow removal/bushfires). The temperature was around 30C – just right to be on the river.
We used to camp there a lot around Christmastime when our three children were little thirty years ago, so it has many wonderful memories for us (and them).
2-4 hours per day on the river paddling is quite enough for us now at 70+ but we still love the afternoons, evenings, nights and mornings camping on the banks of the river. There are innumerable delightful spots.
We still manage to do these trips with an annual spend on car purchases of approx $500, as we always have. The canoes (we have many) rarely cost more than that (new) to buy and have served us for 30+ years and longer.
We hear (and see) lots of people roaring by in $50,000+ 4WDs who get to camp in much less pleasant places and have much less interesting trips, yet we wonder why we never encounter other folks along the river.
Day 1: Starting out from Bullock Flat:
There are so many delightful private campsites mostly accessible only from the river.
It is a serene river.
This one is starting to give up the ghost.
Wildlife is so hard to photograph with just a 5X zoom waterproof pocket camera.
Give me a home among the gum trees.
Campsite for the night. I had a swim but Della only wanted to watch.
This was the Deerhunters#2 tent which evolved into the Grey Flyer. Della prefers the more commodious space so I may even finish it!
Day 2:
The mist rising from the water in the dawn is/was just amazing.
Here is a little video of it.
And off we go again:
Plovers.
Shags.
Bronze wing Pigeon.
Wood ducks.
Day 3:
As I have remarked before there are just so many beautiful spots to camp.
The view upriver.
Setting out again.
First view of the Black Snake pedestrian bridge.
Ruins of the old Black Snake homestead. What memories this must have for someone.
This is the apricot tree in their abandoned orchard we used to raid at Xmas thirty years ago.
And here we are (Bryn, Merrin and me) thirty years ago doing just that. Astonishingly the drum I paced there to help me pick the apricots is still in exactly the same spot!
Arriving at the Black Snake Creek confluence.
Della put together this collage of some old shots of one of our holidays there.
Me sitting on the boat where the kids played (above) remembering the good times we had.
The old walnuts we used to sit in the shade of have long gone but new ones have taken their place.
After Della had posted this collage, our adult kids were excited to revisit our old haunts, so we did in one whirlwind day. This new trip will be the subject of my next post: Black Snake Creek Revisited.
Read More:
For lots more information about this wonderful river read:
Fourteen Days of White Water (which contains heaps more links to canoe trips and tips on the Wonnangatta River, Victoria).
Love these trip reports, thank you for the photos and especially the memory shots. So nice to see you and your wife out adventuring. My children are leaving the nest so I have an eye ahead at the future (and your kit of course) but holding on to these last years and planning our spring trips. Hello from Vancouver BC!
Thank you from Australia. I would love to be paddling in Canada too but find it hard enough just to get away for a few days. Hopefully another canoe trip here before autumn begins and we are able to go on some long walks in the cooler weather. Cheers, Steve & Della.