Snowy river packrafting. McKillops Bridge to Buchan: 3 days of fun and sublime adventure.

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The Snowy river, a symbol of wild appeal in literature and an adventure's dream. It doesn't disappoint. A packrafter's dream for all skill levels, especially when the weather and river levels are in your favour.
I have been dreaming about doing a Snowy river trip for quite some time and for whatever reason never got round to doing it. Why ? I suppose it's the romance of A.B Paterson's poem, The Man From Snowy River or maybe it could be the wild river campaigns to get water releases from the Hydro authrity, or perhaps other intercepts in my life remininding me of the wilderness and serene appeal of this river. On talking to a few packrafting buddies on a recent paddle, it turns out that Claire and Tanya were also keen to do it and had a keen desire to do it soon.

So quick: Claire had a weekend in May in mind, it fitted in within her work schedule, mine and Tanya's. One hiccup: I was a bit reticent do to the forecast of rain over the majority of days that we would be away. The thought of spending 3 to 4 days of rain on the Snowy did not appeal. The Snowy is sold on beautiful valley scenes and nice sandy beaches to camp on. I did not wish to destroy that image by being eternally cold and wet.

The outlook six days ahead was not looking good:
Well, Victoria is not easy to predict. Whilst the North and South and perhaps West of the country remained bathed in the gloom of more rain, another look at the weather report somehow gave this region a reprieve. With a positive outlook on Wednesday just two days out, we set off on Thursday night for our adventure.

We met at Balley Hooley campground which is a few km out of Buchan nestled by the banks of the Snowy river. I arrived first at 6pm and the girls subsequently at 11pm,
We camped overnight, left a vehicle at the campground for a return shuttle and drove to the entry point at  McKillop's bridge in the morning. Balley Hooley campsite was pleasant and well set up, catering  for groups of people, adorned with fire pit areas, picnic tables and some portable toilets. The night was quite chilly, and the valley was blanketed with cloudy mist when we arose, reminding us that our trip gear better be up to the job when we are away. A last minute gear check was made - at least from my perspective to reassure ourselves. A spare set of thermals and socks, beanie, gloves and so on, separate dry bags in case the garments get wet.

To make sure there is  common assent when it comes to leaving the river, we all surveyed the exit point before driving off to McKillops bridge. Lucky for us, the exit is quite easy to discern from the river perspective as it had a string of boulders right across the river and the exit is at the confluence of the Buchan / Snowy river.

The journey to McKillops bridge was quite enjoyable, starting with breakfast and beverage of varying descriptions in Buchan at 'The Willow Buchan Valley' (nice place by the way) then an hour and 1/2 drive. We traveled through lovely mountain scenery ranging from farmland to forest, bitumen roads to dirt. The dirt roads from Balley Hooley to Buchan and 25km to McKillop's bridge are in very good condition. Negative thoughts ran through my head though. With a big vehicle, I was worried a bit that other vehicles would be travelling in the opposite direction on the McKillops leg. Fortunately it wasn't a tested case.The road being steep and narrow would have made passing an interesting situation to deal with.

McKillop's bridge is a popular entry point to the Snowy river, so much so that there is a campground nearby and a launching area. Toilets and picnic areas are also provided. It is a remote area, so the accoutrements of society ie  mobile phone is limited. It is only available near the turn-off to Jindabyne, some 25km out and is not available for most of the trip (70 or so km). We all had an  EPIRB and other emergency aids should some mishap occur on our trip. There are 4wd tracks at various locations, but there would be a considerable walk to get back to any road with passing traffic and some serious climbing should you choose the wrong spot to be in trouble.
Talking about mishaps. Right at the start, Tanya had issues. She had just received her new packraft on Thursday and hence had no chance to set it up. One of the clips that hold back the seat was closed up. No screwdriver nor pliers in her vehicle (trouble with new cars - not expected to break down !). We solved the issue by tying it with some cord.

After that issue was solved, a more sinister issue arose with Claire's packraft deflating. The Tzip... so soon after reading about a guy's demise in Tasmania with a Tzip requiring a rescue... Claire had a leak in hers. It turns out that there was a small particle near the zip entry separating the seal. This we discovered by pouring water over the area and looking carefully at the seal seal line. It was tricky because the zipper body covered the area when opened. After some blowing and fingernail manipulation we got it out.
We finally got away on the river at around 1:30pm. Despite these setbacks, we were in good spirits. The water was flowing nicely at a level of 1.48m, and the weather helped too, not disappointing us with a good clear  albiet  'clowdy at times' day.
Most of the rapids are "read and run", meaning that you can assess the rapids as you go. There were many sets of grade 2 rapids. With that in mind, I encouraged practice with eddy out technique and paddle strokes. This was useful for Tanya particularly, though competent as a flat water paddler, she was a beginner in regard to white water paddling.
After about 2 1/2 hours of paddling, we stopped and found a nice beach to camp on. We had covered about 15km, and it was going to get dark soon.  Being mainly sand, pegs were useless, so I used broken sticks to anchor the tent down.
Cooking in the dark, I was up for a quick meal of cous couse enhanced with spices and  some smoked salmon. Claire won the gourmet cooking competition with her dinner effort. Camping is all the more fun when you bring along some sort of treat. I had a small tipple of liqueur  muscat, and sour snakes, plus a bar of chocolate for my treats. 
Saturday was the day of action. setting of with the promise of another fine weather day and we were cheery with the lure of  the "Gorge" a few hours away. (map courtesy Whitehorse Canoe club, see resources below for link).
On the introductory 'Gorge Entry'  rapids, Tanya had a spill. To here credit she made the Rock Garden  rapids but on the Gorge, the challenge ended in a win for the river. 

On this trip we all enjoyed a spill. No one hurt, spirits stil high. On the gear side, I think Claire and Tanya are seriously considering an upgrade. Tanya was wearing just a wetsuit and didn't like donning wet gear the next day and got a bit chilled as the day cooled. Claire's two piece arrangement  leaks a bit too.  Fortunately, we had a good supply of clothes to change in to and the weather gods were kind to us, so it wasn't the end of the world.
There is a section midway on the trip known as the Gorge where the rapids require proper inspection. They have names viz: Gorge Entry, A frame, Double Stager, Dora's Drop and Gentle Annie: quite pleasant really, when you consider the more sinister names bestowed on the Mitta Mitta such as the Tombstone and Graveyard. When a rapid gets a name, you know it deserves respect.

Being somewhat more challenging than the Rock Garden, Tanya portaged all of the rapids in the Gorge. Despite the Whitehorse Canoe club documentation indicating 2+ and 3+ for these rapids, at this level, we felt they were a bit higher. Grades are subjective anyway. We also were not in the mood to take unnecessary risks due to the small size of our party and our remote location.
The Gorge it is gorgeous !
The portaging, though over large boulders, was relatively straightforward and not too long, taking at most perhaps 1/2 an hour. With all our camping gear, we did acknowledge our loads and reseted a few times on the longer portages.
Claire and I ran the entry, A frame, Dora's Drop and Gentle Annie. The other rapids were above our pay grade. If things go wrong here, we could be in serious trouble. (please note, my names might need correcting - we ran three anyway !)
A careful scout top, bottom and on the side, we ran our first major rapid. Claire took he intended line and ran it beautifully. 
I had to make a quick decision with my run as I started lower and was drifting off line river right towards a nasty stopper. A boof and quick turn and I was clear - woo hoo !
Ah! Gentle Annie something in the name belies that she won't be so gentle.  We thought we could take a line river left. It all looked good from up top and part way down.
Not taking the trouble to check all the way down was a mistake - it all looks good right ? Fools ! Annie decided it wasn't going to give us an untroubled run and booted us over in the final stage with few jutting rocks and a path deviation right at the bottom.  No bother, we both came out OK. Tanya, smart lady, was high and dry with her portage.
Soon after, we found a camp. It was 3pm a good time to finish.  I was suffering a bit of migraine, perhaps due to impending rain - that never really eventuated - and was glad to stop. I basically put my tent on my hands and knees. Thanks to Claire for the hot cup of tea and pain killers.  We traveled around 20km over a period of 7hrs.
The Gorge is the highlight of this trip on the Snowy, but by no means is the rest of the journey a chore. It's another 35km to Buchan through long stretches of flat water and grade 2 rapids.  The scenery is sublime and varied.
With the current assisting or forward speed, conversation on various topics and  quite contemplation, 7 hours seemingly shut down all too soon.
The river had a one more feature to finish off with.  A waterfall was in full flow for us to admire.
We had planned for another night, but due to the proximity of our exit and the muddiness of the shores we decided to do the entire 35km. The van, was still there and as I parked it, so I was happy. With a quick photo and packing exercise we were soon off. The lure of a pub meal interrupted our progress however, and we just had to call in and enjoy a debrief with burger, chips and beer.
On both the incoming and return journey, we witnessed many animals. Unfortunately, quite a few became a statistic from their unwitting contact with vehicles Our speed at night was cut accordingly and. I am glad we didn't kill any.  I can see why the animals get killed,  they get quite confused in the bright headlights. A couple of wallabies were spinning round running in confused circles before they decided what their escape strategy was to be. Despite the 'statistics', I enjoy and revel in seeing the life that still abounds in our bush; we spotted wombat, kangaroo, wallaby, possum, owl, deer and koala. 

On the river we spotted a wild bull deer drinking from the river, which quickly scampered up the mountain at an astonishing pace on noticing us. The girls were miffed because I was the only one who spotted a koala and platypus - next time !
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Resources
There are quite a few sources of information on this trip on the internet. Here are some useful ones:
Blog Indexes:

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