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“Addictions can be very, very bad but addiction itself is not bad.
It’s a case of what you’re addicted to.
You better live each day like it’s your last, ‘cos one day you’re going to be right”.
Ray Charles.
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The King Edward River Freestyle Kayaking Expedition was born out of the 2007 trip to the same region and it was decided that the team would have to go back there in 2009 and was made up this time of Anthony Yap, Lachie Carracher and Jackie Hennessy who planned to be on the river for three weeks.
After the normal organising of a plethora of gear such as electronics, safety gear, tarpaulins, dehydrated meals, solar panels and much more, the team headed off from Melbourne for the trip across the entire country.
After this epic effort they met up with the Moran river tributaries and then followed the Moran River down through 3 gorges, one which looked very similar to the Grand Canyon. Then they had to get off the river just before the last gorge, as they were getting closer to the salt water and could feel the presence of salt water crocs.
Kayak trip? Let’s walk some more …. They then walked for over 3 days with the kayaks to the Mitchell river catchment and one of its tributaries and these days were considered incredibly exhausting by the whole crew. But finally they did get there and then ran the tributary until they reached the Mitchell River itself and then continued down until they finally reached the Mitchell river falls.
From there they hiked out to the Mitchell Plateau airstrip to meet the pre-arranged charter flight out and as a final farewell, there were huge tropical storms meaning that as they flew out they were weaving between massive storm columns.
Some highlights?
There were plenty but one for sure was the sheer number of rock art sites they found, especially the Bradshaw style. It’s estimated that these start at 30,000 years old, with some having been carbon-dated to 50,000 years or more.
Lachie wrote: “It’s hard to describe the feeling of discovering something tens of thousands of years older then the pyramids or Aztec ruins”.
They fished everyday until the floods came and made the water too cloudy to see through and were always foraging for bush food such as bush grapes, bush passion fruit and even they even found one lonely potato.
But in terms of danger, the saltwater crocs were the biggest factor and as they grow to over 20’ long, the carrying of knives was more for reassurance, rather than anything practical.
During the 21 days on river in addition to the crocs, they saw kangaroos, goannas dingos, turtles, bats and a huge array of native frogs and birds and the only down side was though that they didn’t get the water levels that they were hoping for, even though between January to April more water falls on the Kimberley than on the entire eastern seaboard of Australia.
However not this year; the wet season finished as they got on to the river but everyone considered the trip a great success and were glad to be in such a unique place and doing some real exploring and first descents.
Postscript from LC ……
“I have paddled with crocs on the Nile before and hiked though an area that has the highest population of grizzly bears in Canada to get on a river but nothing compares to salt water crocs. These guys have been the top of the food chain in the water since T-Rex was strutting his stuff.
We were all worried about the final 45km of flat water and class three rapid, especially as a number of people have been attacked by the 15ft long predators that roam below King Edward falls.
We were told a few things about the crocs below the falls.
1. They swim upstream during the wet and the falls were the last barrier keeping them from going up stream.
2. They feed at dawn.
3. A woman had been taken in the pool below the falls in the past.
At 6am in the morning for one reason or another, I was faced with a decision, we had an overturned raft trucking downstream from the falls with all our equipment food rations, GPS, maps, sat phone, EVERYTHING floating in the water.
I had to choose rock climbing back up 50 feet to the rest of the team and start out 3 day hike out with nothing but the clothes on out back.
Or grab my paddle, jump off the falls and swim (FOR MY LIFE) to the raft, flip it back over, rescue gear and paddle off the river and be in the pub that night.
I jumped and let me tell you, I came for adrenaline and I got it; wondering if you’re going to be eaten alive and being able to do nothing about it is pretty scary.
Happily, I was not eaten alive; we paddled off the river within the day and were in the pub that night, back in real world and enjoying a beer".
