Cataract Gorge with water

[Chris]

Just had a delightful impromptu nearly-bush walk. In town for Friday shopping, camera in car as usual, I thought it would be worth seeing how much extra water was coming down the gorge for the wildwater canoeing event. Not much movement near the bridge, so headed up the zigzag track and looked for vantage points along the way. There was a fair bit of white water upstream, and it was a magnificent day, so somehow I forgot to turn back ... skirted what I later realised were barricades blocking former track which is now the construction site of the wondrous new "inclinator" ... back-tracked, found a new route giving access to gorge downstream of the causeway (now under water), then headed back to the suspension bridge. Couldn't resist taking the Duck Reach track for a while ... had forgotten what how beautiful it was ... watched canoeing activity ... eventually conscience started pricking so back to suspension bridge and return via the western track. Lots of activity in the water there, so progress was rather slow ... not sure quite what was going on, but very colourful with red presumably rescue boats, canoeists carrying their craft over rocks, some struggling with a bit of rock-climbing etc.

It was a terrific 2 hours, a bit like playing hooky from school . My "To Do" list for the day has barely been touched, but I'm still on a high!

We're so luck to have a place like this so easily accessible, if only it always had a respectable amount of water flowing

Anyhow. if anyone's at a loose end over the weekend and doesn't want to go too far afield, there'll be water coming down both days. There will no doubt be hoards more people than I saw today, but also racing on the water rather than just practice. The weather looks like it's going to be great too.

Attachments

[Macca81]

bloke in the red vest, looks suspiciously like a mate of mine...


you shoulda seen it when it was in flood 2 or 3 months ago! that was insane!

[samh]

viewtopic.php?f=3&t=2576&p=26144

[Phil]

It truly is a magical place!

I have the pleasure of running home from work through town, over the zig-zag track to the gorge and then up to Duck Reach once or twice a week .....I never grow tired of the tracks and views!

There's also some really good walking to be had through the Trevallyn Reserve and it's all so close to town!

[Chris]

bloke in the red vest, looks suspiciously like a mate of mine...

I'd love to know what they were doing Macca. It looked like a tricky manoeuver; I watched for quite a while, but couldn't work out whether they had a problem or were maybe practicing for possible rescues on Sunday.

you shoulda seen it when it was in flood 2 or 3 months ago! that was insane!

Yes it was terrific, but wouldn't like that to happen too often. Too much of our garden on the South Esk goes under water, and I haven't finished clearing the debris yet!

[Chris]

It truly is a magical place!
I have the pleasure of running home from work through town, over the zig-zag track to the gorge and then up to Duck Reach once or twice a week .....I never grow tired of the tracks and views!

Yes Phil, I thoroughly enjoyed dog-walking from Duck Reach to the Basin and back regularly after work when living not too far away. Often walked along the water-course rather than the track, with lots of puddle-jumping. Shame on the Hydro for letting so little water through for that to be possible, but it was fun!

[Lynda Moir]

Thanks Chris for posting this walk and pictures - what a glorious day. Makes it seem like I was almost there. Great for those of us living away from Tasmania.

[MichaelP]

The gorge is amazing in flood.
Here is a pic i took during the floods this year....

Would love to do some rafting here!