Day 25: 11 December 2019 PDT Day 4
Today we hoped to reach Bathurst Harbour and row across the Narrows, the 400m stretch between Farrell Point and Point Joan. We were fully aware this was a potential place to get held up, as strong currents, winds, and tides often make the crossing treacherous and delay trips on the PDT. We aimed to reach the Narrows by 4 pm, as the fine weather was due to break overnight, and we needed to cross within an hour before or after low tide at 5:30 pm. The track, we knew couldn’t be worse than we had already experienced, now could it?
We resumed the mud walking almost immediately. It almost seemed like an old friend now. And again, practice makes possible. Sometimes I (Merran) could get myself out of a sticky patch unassisted. It was encouraging to see how much stronger I was getting, and how much easier it was becoming to clamber over the fallen trees on the track.
When we arrived at the larger Spring River campsite within a few minutes of starting, we were met with a most impressive aluminium bridge rather than the anticipated large underwater log used for crossing. It looked like one of those white elephants that should have had a sign on it, “Your taxes at work”. But still, it must be a sign of better things to come. We confidently posed at either end – and stepped off back into a maelstrom of destruction. Huge trees fallen onto each other, over the track, the inevitable mud, and confusion about which way to go. The hardest part for Tim was getting past low-hanging branches and trees at chest height – too hard to get over, his usual preference, but almost impossible to get under with his heavy, high pack. (There are some (not many, but some) advantages of being short.)
As mentioned earlier, the Spring River campsite marks the point at which the old Port Davey surveyed track ends. The next part part of the track was created for bushwalkers getting to the Narrows. So now, as well as the mud et al we had some serious ups and downs. The classic guidebook for the PDT is by John Chapman, and he states: “Follow ridges southwards then descend briefly to Forest Camp … Continue for 200m descending into a large scrubby creek. Climb quickly out of this and follow open ridge tops southwards with good views of Manwoneer Inlet”. The “ridges to Forest Camp” were quite a challenge and we were fresh first thing in the morning. We felt for the Trek group who had added this section to the day before in the hope to make Melaleuca the next day. We heard later it made a long and tiring day for them. ‘Large scrubby creek’ turned out to be quite the understatement and ‘climb quickly’, well – with mud, thick impenetrable scrub and trees down, sure, nice!!
After constant ascents and descents throughout the day, we were an hour later than we hoped when we arrived at Farrell Point. I expected we would have to camp here and row across the next day, but Tim was keen to check out the boats and immediately proceeded to winch down one of the dinghies and prepare for crossing the harbour. The story is better told by Tim at this point …
While the tide had just turned and there was a fair Northerly blowing, I (Tim) felt it was not as bad as it could be and ‘let’s do this now’ as the weather was due to worsen by the morning. There were a few lifejackets but only three dodgy oars in the rack. We set up and made the first crossing, which was not too bad even with a reasonable swell in the centre of the channel. Towing the second boat back was quite another story. The oars were loose in their rollicks, and most were bent. It was a major challenge just getting clear of the rocks on the south side and then with the tide and wind, it took three to four times as long to battle the wind drag on two boats. I had done a fair bit of rowing as a child so eventually got there but had quite a number of times watched points on the shore and realised that as strongly as I was rowing, we were hardly moving against the wind and tide. I had asked Merran to shoot a few photos from the middle in the waves and wind but she was busy – praying I think!
To our surprise, our Trek friends were camped at Point Joan. They had planned to go on to Melaleuca that day but had called it a day here after their previous slog. I had prayed for an angel to help us across – the Trek guides answered the call as they helped Tim pull the boat up onto the ramps after the 3rd trip across the Narrows. By this time it was too late to cook a full meal, our hearty homemade re-hydrated pumpkin soup was the perfect end to a long, wonderful day. We were right on target to walk to Melaleuca the next day, and eagerly anticipating boardwalks and bridges.