Arthur River

[davidf]

looking for info in regarding to accessing the arthur river from Farqhuars Bridge and getting out at arthur river. packrafting trip.

[north-north-west]

Try the new Tarkine Trails guidebook. That has a section on rafting trips, and discusses various access points for the Arthur.

[Overlandman]

Read in the Advocate last week that the river water level is very low,
From memory the Canoe Hire company had a story about it.
Regards OLM

[Joel]

Ive kayaked from farquars bridge to the end.I did it at the end of winter and the water level was pretty high, but there are still really long and frequent stretches of flat water.The estuary is quite long and I would hate to do it in a packraft.Even in a 9 foot kayak it sucked.
Beautiful scenery but way too much slow water for me to recommend packrafting. It just seems so unnecessary when you could use a kayak.Its not like you need to walk in or anything.

[Nuts]

Iv'e been down a couple of times in low to middling water. It wasn't overly exciting but a still lot's of long pools, good camping. I'd do it again in low water, packraft is at least easy to portage but agreed a hardshell kayak even an estuary kayak may be better atm. Was definitely a different beast after the snowmelt in winter, pretty fast all the way from Waratah. The estuary will be a chore in any short boat, nice from below in a sea kayak. Can help with access if necessary & at a reasonable rate (forum help style, not advertising)

[davidf]

thanks, I have dates and will pm you. have a few questions. will pm you. Raindance time.

[Nuts]

No worries. Personally i'd not set a date soon, before rain, some wildfires around and if the water was any lower (than on our lowest water trip) could be very tedious. Any lower would have meant dozens of gravel race portage that I recall were just passable. Easy but slow. Happy to help out otherwise if dates align .

[Nuts]

Probably well left and for a little while longer. Scenery wise the lower reaches (i'd say centered on the river for 25-30klms E/W from Tayatea Bridge) not at it's best with a lot of fire damage evident. Still smouldering and in parts pretty smokey. At the rivers edge vegetation is mostly intact besides intermittent cascades of fallen eucalypt burnt out at their base or snapped off on the way (some lying green in the river but not much, so far, in the way of additional hazards). Away from the river, especially intense on hilltops some have little left standing, black and charred. Would have been a pretty terrifying place to be, on the river, especially where the fire jumped over.

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Still. Again a great four days. I tried to ignore thoughts of the fire and devastation, avoided going for a walk through it. I'm sure fire front would have a relationship to the amount of wildlife we saw congregated on or near the river.. .including a Devil and signs of others, and this Eagle (hastily snapped mid rapid ).

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