A crazy week of paddling in FNQ Australia

By Jez

Day one
After finishing work, I grabbed my boat and got straight to the airport arriving late in the night at FNQ. I threw off my jumper, no need for that up here. It’s perfect weather up here in the jungle. I headed straight to the city and met up with the rest of the crew already partying very hard with a few drinks under their belt. A stack of pubs and a great holiday spot, Cairns is a great base. We were up here to get some footage for a new Australian Paddling film “We’re going there anyway” by Skippy films.

Three of us got up a little crusty but headed straight to the river. Robbie J works on the river almost every day and knows it like the back of his hand.

Strapping our gear on, we started the hike in. This is no normal hike in, more like a class 5 hike in over a path that goes on and on. A few river crossings and tough terrain, but apparently this is normal up here. In fact this is considered an easy hike in as there is a path whereas most other rivers you have to bash your way through the jungle. This is World Protected area, so it will always be the way it is. A good thing.

Robbie J is a local who explained to us how the hike in and out of rivers are quite often the most dangerous parts of kayaking up here in FNQ. A plant called a “wait a while” called this as thorns on the plant grab you, and another plant that injects cyanide into people if you brush by it mean that just the plants alone can kill you. Besides these there are animals such as snakes, spiders and of cause crocodiles are also potential killers. Leaches and ticks are everywhere and you sort of get used to a few leaches hanging off you throughout the day. Yea, just a normal day of boating up here.

So, we got to the river and put on. A nice start to paddling up here with a few class 3/4 sections. A sweet boof and some good solid sections made for some easy paddling but an awesome start to the week.

Day two
Again we all woke up a little shady, but called up a good mate Drew and he recommended the Beatrice river down south. A quick call to a new mate, Glen and we were off south on the road again. We all met on the side of the highway, got to know each other and drove up the road to the put in hike. Through a farmers yard, down a long muddy and worn track with cattle, amazing views and some tough hiking. Yea, we had to heard some cattle out of the way. Yet again I am told that this is yet again another easy hike up here. I guess it’s all relative. We put in and paddled down to a huge boulder garden with pinning spots and small cracks everywhere. Not the ideal level as we scraped our way down the river, grinding over a few spots and hiking around others. This was awesome to see how remote paddling up here is, with nothing but spectacular mountains all around and no roads for miles. After a bit of very tough going due to the water level, we got to a small rapid that seemed like a fairly tough angle to make. A pining rock which required a strong right boof, which Drew made look easy. The next rapid was a cool slide. This is where things got a little interesting as we set up the camera and tried to make a line edging left towards a large piton rock in the middle. Fraser went first and missed the line, banging the rock hard and getting vertical, and falling off to the right. Awesome carnage footage and luckily he seemed ok. I only just made the line and we continued down to some awesome small waterfalls and a few must make moves. We paddled on as we lost light, getting off the river in the dark and hiking up a fairly steep valley. Glen got to the top, lost his footing and dropped his boat which fell all the way back to the river. Sure was funny for us but not for him as he hiked back down the mountain in the dark.

What an epic day. More to follow.
jez
Jackson Kayak Coordinator of Karma