Port Davey Part 2: Exploring the Three Rivers

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April 2020

With yet another storm about to hit Tasmania’s west coast we thought there would be no better place to hide out then up a river, Melalauca Inlet. With our shallow draft we had no issues motoring up Melalauca Inlet, dropping anchor at a small junction near the airport. This was a relatively narrow section of the river which led into an inaccessible lagoon so once again we decided to spider web ourselves into place. Not only did we put out a bow and stern anchor but we also had two lines tied to the shore, stopping us from going anywhere.

We spent three nights in our snug little anchorage, spending most of our time on board Allagai hiding out from the weather. While up Meleleuca Inlet it rained and rained and then rained some more, we were quickly discovering that Port Davey was a wet and stormy place. We went ashore on the odd occasion to the airport to receive weather updates and stretch our legs on the walking paths. However for the most part we stayed bunkered down on Allagai catching another staggering 30L of rainwater off the back canopy.

It was also while anchored up here that we had one of our most horrifying experiences to date. On our last morning anchored in Meleleuca Inlet I noticed a little, white, wormy thing on the deck. At first I was horrified and thought it was a maggot and figured something in the rubbish bin had gone bad. However it wasn’t anywhere near the bin and upon further inspection I found about a dozen others hiding in puddles and in dark places around the deck. We quickly realised that these white worms weren’t maggots at all but in fact a type of leech as they followed our warm fingers, so we speculated that they had fallen from the trees we were anchored under. After making this discovery we decided it was time to leave the river and find a new anchorage with no overhanging trees, hoping that none had made it below while doing a very thorough deckwash.

That day we decided to weigh anchor and head across to the other side of Bathurst Harbour where there was a couple of other rivers to explore. First we headed to the north east corner of the harbour anchoring at the mouth of Old River. Our cruising guide suggested we could take a dingy about a mile up the river and potentially see a stand of ancient Huon Pines. This had us intrigued to see these rare trees and so no sooner was the anchor set we piled into the dingy and headed up the river. The Old River was quite beautiful, straight and fairly narrow with large trees towering over the top of us. Like our guide said we reached a set of rapids after about a mile and found a spot to land the dingy. However that was about as far as we got, we could see an old overgrown path but could barely get a few metres before it became impassable. That day we came to the conclusion that because of the large amount of rain the rapids were a lot worse then normal and so the normal landing spot, which we could see a little further past the turbulent water wasn’t accessible. So we decided to turn around and head back to Allagai. Although we were a little disappointed not to have seen the Huon Pines we had still had a good adventure and were amazed by the stunning scenery we had seen.

Once back on board the boat we decided not to hang around this anchorage as we also wanted to see the other river that day. It was only two miles away in the north west corner of Bathurst Harbour. We made it there in no time at all and once again no sooner was the anchor in the water and set we were heading off in the dingy. That day we didn’t have time to waste with yet another storm due so we had to complete the three rivers in one day as that night we were heading back to Clayton’s Corner. So up the North Inlet we went, although this river was more like a creek. The water seemed quite shallow, the river was very narrow and we were constantly on the lookout for snags. However it was well worth the trip with more stunning scenery and plenty of bird life to be seen. We probably made it about two miles up the river before it became too shallow and filled with snags for us to proceed so we turned around and headed back to Allagai.

Following our river adventures we weighed anchor one last time and motored back to Claytons Corner where we decided to wait out the next storm. It wasn’t forecast to be quite as bad as the last storm so we didn’t feel the need to tie ourselves in place this time. At the time we didn’t think we would be going anywhere as the bottom in Claytons Corner is a thick black sludge like mud. However one night while anchored there with the storm howling outside we did drag anchor. We had been having troubles with GPS signal in this area and so our anchor alarm wasn’t working properly and so it was while we were looking out the porthole that we realised we were on the move. Our anchor was dragging and we were heading straight for the rocks. With Hugo on the bow madly winching in the anchor, I was helming trying to keep us head to wind in the 40kt gusts which were pummelling us. Thankfully the anchor came up without any issues and we were able to motor away from the rocks and re-anchor well away from them. But it did cause for a restless nights sleep with the wind blowing strong until the early hours of the morning. Although waking up the following morning it was like the storm had never happened with clear skies and mirror flat waters. It was with this beautiful weather that we decided to find a new anchorage. We had decided to head to Moulters Inlet in the south east corner of Bathurst Harbour.

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