|
|
|
|
|
|
Finding the Lost Explorer
by John Intrepid
From the Bulletin Board:
"Peter and John, two sad paddlers, walked out of the Valley on the Sunday of the Descent, leaving a blue Explorer 515 wrapped around a rock between Hart's and Walyunga. If anyone is up that way and sees it either getting nearer the surface when the water drops or somewhere downstream, please ring ____ or email ____. Does anyone have experience on how to get back there for retrieval?"
The rescue of our blue plastic K2 is almost complete. Now it
can be
removed from the "lost" columns.
Last Tuesday morning, when the water was under 0.7m my wife
Jane and I
took a child's bike and an ancient lady's bike and set off from
Bells,
uneasily cycling through the "no bikes, riders shot on sight"
private
property and becoming happier as we climbed the fence to enter
the
National Park. It wasn't fast going, however, and one and a half
hours later we
reached the 45 km post, upstream of Walyunga. Work commitments
prevailed
and we turned for home, having fallen short of the target.
We did some serious research, buying a big map from DOLA and
the amazing
Bolland book. Studying the section in the book between Hart's
and
Walyunga, I decided that the location we were searching for was
"Deadly
Mistake", at the 49.3 mark. Saturday we decided to "do
it" and got
together a crack squad of retrieval artists: Two 38 y.o. kayakers
(to be
known as the "elite athletes"), one long-suffering wife,
one Japanese
exchange student, four children aged 5 to 9.
With a makeshift two wheel trolley, bags of ropes, helmets,
jackets & saw
(..just in case..) the squad set off down Walyunga Lookout hill
to meet
the track at the 43.1k. In less than two hours we hit the spot
and: lo,
and behold, there was at least some of the blue boat still stuck
on the
same rock as it was two weeks ago (Descent Sunday). Couldn't see
the
front end anymore, but something was stopping the back end from
floating
away. We "geared up" and started tying ropes together,
with one end
attached to Elite Athlete #1 and the other end tied to a stout
tree. EA1
plunged in, making the far shore and then the rock in good time,
then
tied the rope to the end of the Kayak. With the boat broken in
the
middle and the water down at about point seven, it was an easier
task
lifting the end up, lightening the load and then flipping it over
the
rock. EA2 then hauled on the ropes as it swung across the river
to the
left bank again. Other than temporarily submerging under a couple
of
obstacles, it was now maneuvered to the bank.
Out of the water, the extent of the damage was now apparent.
The deck
and some of the bottom are intact but several large splits have
opened
up along one side and underneath. It looks somehow curved, though,
or
was it my imagination? The two halves of my first paddle, stashed
in the
stern after EMU falls bit them were still there but the container
and
800g of chocolate bars had slipped their moorings, much to the
dismay of
the treasure-seeking younger members of the party.
We arranged the boat by the service road for a later pick-up.
The walk back was getting slower, with the smaller ones taking
turns to
be pulled on the trolley, and the final climb to the lookout was
the
killer, dragging the gear (and thankfully not the boat) up the
slope.
Funny, I don't think I've ever walked UP the Walyunga Lookout
before!
Water, coffee and eventually lots of cold beers soon restored
the bodies
to their usual states.