This long rapid has three sections, the last of which is 'The Washing Machine' where these pics were taken. After entering a pool at the bottom of a long, usually wild, ride you turn sharp right to face a rock barrier with three narrow gaps through which the paddler drops down to much turbulence (hence the name).

1  Looking upstream at The Washing Machine.

The water level continued to fall on Day 2 without overnight rain, probably about 0.75m at Walyunga, as most paddlers went through Emu Falls. THAT rock in the middle of the popular river right route caused a few capsizes. A few paddlers took the middle route with mixed results. River left gap was not an option.

2  Different ways to get down through the Washing Machine -

Backwards (crowd pleaser): here is novice Stuart O'hara showing how it's done.

3  Forwards, river right: Rob Roll finds a perfect line down the river right gap, the most popular route.

4  Middle gap: veteran Avon paddler, John de Nucci, cruises down.

5  You can always climb down (not recommended at high water levels!) - Simon Roll

6  Not good on river right of that rock . . . Liam Twigger and Michael McCallion

7 . . . not good on river left of that rock - Mark Pieri and Nicholas Prosser

8 . . . and definitely not good on top of it (but another crowd pleaser) - Marcus Brockhurst and Damian Cox.

Double skis have a hard time here.

9 Did they make it? - veteran Avon C2 paddlers Geoff Barr and John Price approach the middle gap.

10  Laurie Haynes and Tim Sambell chose the river right gap.

The Washing Machine with plenty of water - Julie Kinney finds the right line - this time to the river right of THAT rock in the middle of the river right gap (during a training run in 1992). Compare this with Rob Roll's line at low water in photo 3.

(photo: R. Khorshid)