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The Giblin River

PostPosted: Mon 04 Mar, 2019 4:31 pm
by PJK
Just a note to anybody who might be interested. In late January I was part of a group to explore the Giblin river inorth of Port Davey. It has interested me for many years, having first walked across its mouth in 1975 when walking up the west coast, then crossing it further upstream in 2010 en route from Nye Bay to Lake Pedder via the Big Propsting.

Having considered various options for accessing the valley we settled on a route from just above Settlement Point up the De Witt Valley and into the upper Giblin. We managed to use alpaca rafts from a narrow gorge at the point where the upper Giblin meets the Big Propsting and over several days travelled down to the lower Giblin, taking a day to climb the Big Propsting on the way.

Sadly at this point our trip was interrupted by a bush fire that had started a few days earlier from one of the lightning strikes that created such carnage a month ago. After consulting the authorities via satphone they wanted us out of the area, so instead of ending at Nye Bay to be picked up by a fishing boat, we spent the day with the team from the Westpac helicopters.

Happy to provide any information to anyone interested.

Take care.

Peter Kaldor

Re: The Giblin River

PostPosted: Mon 04 Mar, 2019 5:31 pm
by vagrom
Paulpeakbagger led a group of us through that area in 2009 Peter, off the Old Port Davey Track and camped below Davey Sugarloaf.

Ten days in all, crossing the Davey at ~gr171235 , then met friends in the De Witt valley and did Hean, Castle, Propsting, Piners and out the same way, this time crossing at Island Reach and back to DaveySL. This sort of country is described as character building.

From Hean we could see the wreck of the Svenor. We walked down from Scotts and the others flew in, crossing the Davey further down, almost losing their leader in the process. Our inward crossing in that loop section allowed us to cross chest deep.

Wild Mag. did a great piece at the time about a small group (4 guys?) dropped by boat at Wreck Bay who made their way via Hean back to the Lost World Plateau, our own point of departure.

Re: The Giblin River

PostPosted: Mon 04 Mar, 2019 7:44 pm
by Paul
74  THE PIRATES OF SVENOR.JPG
I went through there a few years back - see the photo of Svenor then and now.

Re: The Giblin River

PostPosted: Sat 09 Mar, 2019 5:19 pm
by Mark_O
Thanks Peter. Great area and trip. Shame to hear it got cut short and obviously terrible that so many areas have been devastated by fire. I'd be keen to hear more about what the Giblin River was like in regards to packrafting it.

Cheers