The alarm woke us at seven am to a morning sky bathed in soft pink and super still, glassy water. We set off straight away, heading out of the basin and back into the harbour. A low band of thick cloud blanketed the horizon, and with the pretty light and millpond water it was an incredibly serene and peaceful scene.
Reaching the mouth of the Gordon River we followed the red and green markers, avoiding a few shallow spots, and then we were in, cruising slowly upstream, the low cloud hanging just above the tree tops. The local yacht Stormbreaker passed us on her way out, having picked up a load of kayakers from the Franklin River.
The fog came and went, and as we wound our way up the river, the incredibly still conditions led to some amazing reflections on the water; trees and clouds mirrored perfectly in the glassy river. It was magical.
Anchoring just past the pontoon at Heritage Landing, we tied our tender to the jetty and followed the little boardwalk through the rainforest. Part of the Tasmanian Wilderness World Heritage Area, the cool temperate rainforest receives two and a half metres of rain per year and has been free of fire for thousands of years. It is an ancient forest, with several of the Huon pine trees purported to be up to three thousand years old. Growing at a rate of one millimetre per year, the Huon pine is the slowest growing tree in the forest and the location of the very oldest trees is a tightly kept secret, known only to a selected few timber scientists.
Nevertheless, the Huon pines that we saw were magnificent, and knowing of the slow growth rate, it was mind boggling to estimate their age. There were also celery top pines, blackwood, sassafras and myrtle beech trees growing in abundance. It was a special place to be able to visit all by ourselves.
And we had timed it well, for not long after we returned to Cool Change and were cooking pancakes for breakfast, the first tour boat showed up. Waving goodbye, we pulled our anchor and headed upstream. From now on, we would have the entire river to ourselves.
And what a trip upstream it was. The fog cleared, the sun came out and we delighted in the sight of absolutely perfect reflections where it was hard to tell where the riverbank ended and the water began. We took turns at the helm so the other person could sit up front and take it all in. What incredible weather. What incredible timing. We felt incredibly lucky.
Reaching the jetty at Sir John Falls, we tied up and determined that we could definitely stay there for the night. The pontoon is used by the yacht StormBreaker, but visiting yachts are free to tie up if StormBreaker isn’t using it. It seemed we were in luck.
We wandered back to the Falls and explored the little walking track to the newly refurbished Rafter’s Hut. This is the spot where rafters and kayakers finish after paddling the Franklin River, and wait to get a lift out on either StormBreaker or a seaplane.
I had read that there were glow worms near the falls, but we didn’t manage to see any unfortunately. The conditions were perfect for some night sky photography, however, and Matt set up his tripod on a little beach near the hut. With not a soul for miles around, there was almost no light pollution and the stars were reflected in the still water below, astonishingly bright and clear. It was another magical experience.
It was also incredibly cold and we piled extra blankets onto our bed. I was so thankful for my ugg boots that my Mum had dropped over to Matt when he flew back to Melbourne. They were a game changer. I would strongly advise anyone going sailing in Tasmania to pack your ugg boots, even in summer! You’ll thank me for it!
After a great night’s sleep we woke to some light rain, but Matt was still able to put the drone up to capture another perspective of this awesome wilderness that we were right in the middle of.
The rain was not enough to put us off exploring upstream to the Franklin River, so we threw on raincoats and jumped in our tender. The sky was overcast, but even with the light drizzle it was very still and there were some good reflections in the water as we slowly motored up the river. Some big splashes had us wondering ‘what the?,’ and turned out to be a couple of dolphins. All this way up the river…… amazing!
We reached the Franklin and began heading upstream, pushing into the current. Although several friends of ours had managed to navigate a fair way upstream, we were both pretty sceptical about the ability of our little inflatable and we were right. We pushed hard to get through the first set of little rapids, but then it just got too shallow. With the bottom of the tender scraping over jagged rocks and riverbed, the thought of a deflated tinny and the resulting very long swim/ bushbash back to our boat was enough to make us pull the pin.
Rafting the Franklin River had been a long held bucket list dream of mine and we’d done that back in 2015. It had been such a special experience, and I was really glad that we’d been able to revisit on this trip, even if briefly. Although not for the faint hearted, I would highly, highly recommend checking out rafting the Franklin for not only an incredible adventure but also a very special wilderness experience.
Making our way back downstream, we stopped off at Warner’s Landing for a look around. The landing was built by the Tasmanian Hydro-Electric Commission as the base for the construction work on the infamous and ill-fated Gordon-Below-Franklin-Dam. In December 1982, a non-violent protest against the dam was staged at Warner’s Landing. It came to be known as the Franklin Blockade and was ultimately successful. We all owe a huge debt of gratitude to those brave and committed protesters.
Scrambling ashore, we discovered a clearing at the top that was pretty much just a muddy bog with soggy and swampy ground underfoot. With every step, my feet would sink into the boggy ground, so that my sandals were soon caked with a thick layer of mud. Gingerly following a little trail out of the clearing, we stumbled across a much larger cleared area, where we assumed the Hydro-Electric Commission’s bulldozer had been landed. After wandering around the clearing for a while, we spotted what appeared to be a trail leading into the forest. It was marked by pieces of orange tape tied to trees and where it led we had no idea. But we were game to find out. The tape led us on a meandering route through the forest, climbing up and over logs and weaving in between trees.
After some time, we began to wonder if the track did actually lead anywhere, or if we were on a wild goose chase. On any account, we still had to return back all the way we had come – and exactly the same way we had come. We followed the pieces of tape back, and when we could not easily spot the next one, Matt would stand still, while I searched ahead for the next marker. We knew that it would be all too easy to get lost in this wilderness.
Exploring at Warner’s Landing, Gordon River:
Our wet and muddy feet were now very, very cold, so it was time to head back to the boat to warm up. We did a few minor maintenance jobs and then decided to move back down to Macquarie Harbour. We were pretty sure that StormBreaker was coming back to its jetty that night, and we had a potential weather window to move up the coast. As nice as the river and harbour were, being stuck here for weeks on end was not a possibility that I relished. The clock was ticking again, and it was time for our last big sail up the west coast. Our time in Tasmania was coming to an end.
Time spent amongst trees is never wasted time.
Katrina Mayer
Cool Change 