SOUTHWEST EXPEDITIONS - UPPER GORDON RIVER CRUISE

​I’m met with two big smiles as I hurry along the Strahan Wharf to board Stormbreaker. It’s a few minutes after my scheduled arrival time but Sean and Kel seem delightfully unperturbed by this. We’re on West Coast time and as Kel artfully pulls the 20-metre steel ketch a little closer, dancing between bobbing buoys, I feel right at home. This also reduces the gap for my laptop to slip into the moody harbour. We’re bound for Sir John Falls on an overnight adventure 35 kilometres, up the famed Gordon River.
I’m directed to cosy quarters down below and zip up my laptop for good, deciding it doesn’t belong on the grand Gordon River. My good intentions of writing the story aboard were swiftly replaced with a plan to not miss one moment of a river I first met as a one-year-old aboard our trailer-sailor family yacht. Dad built a ‘fence’ so I wouldn’t venture from the quarter berth and off sailed a family of five. Though I don’t recall that trip, I sure do remember the spell-binding mirror reflections later in childhood when doing an on-deck handstand might reveal the same scene as standing right way up.

Today, now in my forties, I’m heartened to know it’s another family adventure of a different kind. Sean and Kel are not only enthusiastic siblings waiting to share the Gordon with me, but they’re twins. Their older brother is also in the business and the local team have more than three decades of experience exploring the southwest waterways.

We go through a safety briefing down in the saloon and Sean points out our mission ahead on the sprawling map. We are off on an Upper Gordon River Cruise, only possible when combined with collecting rafters from their Franklin River Rafting adventure. It’s a rare opportunity to experience the wilds of the Gordon’s far reaches with the only company granted a government license, so it’s a privilege to venture far beyond where others can go.
We head out into Macquarie Harbour under grey skies as rain sprinkles the deck. Sarah Island looks ominously brutal, as it no doubt felt to the convicts taken there in the 1820s. For a moment I feel frustrated it’s not a blue-sky day but promptly accept this is the West Coast as it is. Here, winds can howl, rain can strike sideways and next a sunrise can deliver glassy calm. With a hot coffee warming my hands, I look at the twins, perched up on the captain’s chair together. They’re bare feet, happy as can be. They don’t even need to try to look like locals.

It's about a six-hour cruise to reach the intrepid rafters, across the harbour and into the Gordon with its World Heritage Area magnificence as a platter of Tasmanian cheeses and treats emerge from below. Bird calls are about the only sounds that interrupt our quiet wilderness and we spot only one human along the way. He’s sitting on a chair and raises his teacup happily from Boom Camp, surrounded by a cacophony of greens from Myrtle to ancient Huon pines. We then pass where the world-famous Franklin blockade played out, Bob Brown and his fiercely passionate protestors triumphing. I listen as Sean describes those early 1980s times with humans on foot and in rafts versus imposing bulldozers. Today, the Franklin remains in all its wild glory. We’re about to collect rafters who have flown from as far away as Germany and the UK, having completed what’s described as one of the planet’s last wild river expeditions.

We meet a very happy crew on the jetty, huddled together over soup. Also excited to see us are my parents, who have spent nine days kayaking and exploring the area, staying in a former Hydro hut. My father is a member of the Mountain Huts Preservation Society, who have assisted as one of many volunteer groups (public service announcement: volunteers welcome and a brilliant way to explore far-flung Tassie wilds!)  It’s a sweet moment to see a smile beam across Dad’s unshaven face and Mum waving happily ready to lead me along a fairyland-style mossy trail to what had been their home for more than a week.

As I approach Sir John Falls my mouth falls open as its beauty envelopes me in the fading light. I’m then led past the rafter’s camp site to the hut and private river beach where my parents have kayaked, swum and frolicked in the rhythms of nature. I wonder how I could possibly leave this place in a matter of hours when the rafters pack up camp at 5am to return to civilisation by noon. I’m distracted from chats with rafting guide and owner Elias, by the call for dinner back on board in the toasty saloon. It’s a delicious close to the day, topped off by curling up to the sound of giggling twins. What an office they share!
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I wake to rafters hopping aboard in darkness and open my private cabin to meet a saloon full of jolly grins as they tuck into brekkie. Their expressions convey an unforgettable time in nature without any need for words. We return under blue skies as they play a few last card games, read onboard books, and share about nights under cave overhangs.

I snap pictures of my elated parents beside their kayaks, as we’re swept back to many decades before on this very same river in 1981 when Dad ‘reached out an arm from the cockpit to catch me tipping over my makeshift gate.’
I don’t question the adventurous parenting of that era; I’m simply thankful to the parents beside me, who took me exploring this island before I could walk.
The Gordon River will always have my heart.
I will return.
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Words and images: Alice Hansen

UPPER GORDON RIVER CRUISE
The details: Upper Gordon River Cruise
Inclusions
Afternoon tea, dinner, breakfast, and morning tea are included
A complementary drink is served with your evening meal, and you may bring your favourite drinks.
Adult – $450 per person
Child 10 – 16 years $225 per child
From Sir John Falls to Strahan – $300 per person
Your Itinerary includes:
12.45pm board the yacht at the Strahan Wharf for a 1pm departure. Spend the night aboard on the Gordon River, returning to Strahan at approx. 12 noon the next day.
What you will need to bring:
You will need a coat, a hat, camera, any favourite drinks, sunscreen.
Note: We do not have wet weather gear for you. If you have special dietary requirements, let us know at the time of booking, and we will endeavour to cater for you.
Southwest Expeditions 
Sean Gerrity 0427 889 740
Sam Gerrity 0409 547 398
The Esplanade, Strahan
southwestexpeditions.com.au
 
*Head to Southwest Expeditions to find out more about their fleet of 4 specific vessels that operate out of Strahan and offer custom trips as well as an Overnight on the Gordon River complete with Sarah Island tour, Southwest Conservation Area Expedition and more.
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