I don’t know how many other forum members have had to do this before, but for me it was the first time. It was an incident of “damned if you don’t” and I will explain:
Another forum member (who I won’t mention, as he has requested I don’t) and I had planned to do a 6 day trip down to Kanangra creek, which is in the Kanangra-Boyd NP in the Blue Mountains, to do some fly fishing. This is a place that we frequent, and know the surrounds well. As I always do, I had checked the weather forecast leading up to the departure day (Sunday morning) and it had predicted rain on 2 days, and some high winds in Katoomba, but otherwise ok. I had monitored the river height data at all the stations that have gauges surrounding and/or that flow into the Cox’s River and other close by rivers such as the Kowmung, on the BOM website. None showed any rise, and the amount of rain over the days leading up to the trip was negligible.
As it started to rain quite heavily in Sydney on Saturday and continued throughout the night, I actually postponed the trip by 1 day, and wanted to see what the weather would do for another 24hrs. There was no change in the mountains, so we headed off on Monday morning. We arrived at Carlon’s Farm at the end of the Megalong Valley and made our way to Kanangra creek via Mobbs Soak. The walk in only provided some light rain and mist, and certainly the ground had not received any notable soaking. At Mt Yellowdog- the last place you can get mobile reception, I once again checked the weather. The rain radar showed no rain around the area.
The crossing at the Cox’s river was around knee deep and with a gentle flow. The next small crossing across Kanangra creek was even shallower, and I thought there would be more flow. We set up camp and had met 2 other fishermen who were camped near us and chatted with them; they had been only a few hours ahead of us on the way in.
Then at around 630pm it started to rain……
It rained pretty much most of the night, but wasn’t too heavy. Tuesday morning we woke up to find Kanangra creek had risen about a few feet but was very crossable. We fished the Cox’s river, and over the morning it continued to rain, but only lightly. The Cox’s had not changed above the junction of Kanangra creek, however below, it was starting to rise significantly. At around 1pm we ran into 1 of the other fisherman at the junction of Kanangra/Cox’s and chatted. Through conversation he told us that it was his first time here, and also that they were due to leave and be back in Sydney on Wednesday night. I asked if they were carrying a PLB and if they had filled out a Trip Intention Form with the Police – which they had neither!. The other fisherman with him was apparently experienced and had been here a few times before. He seemed quite concerned about the river conditions and that they were hoping that they could cross the Cox’s at the base of Yellow Pup. I said to him if the worst case scenario was that you can’t and that you would be overdue for return to Sydney, to come see us and we could if required activate the PLB as a last resort. Now, this is a rather poor situation for them to be in. My mate and I returned to our camp and had lunch and then at about 4pm I said we should go to see them and chat. We were camped about 10 minutes upstream from them and upon arriving; they were nowhere to be seen. Obviously they had decided to leave early, as their window to return to Sydney was small. We walked down to the Cox’s crossing and realized that the river was uncrossable – at least that is what it was when we arrived. We were quite concerned about them, and even questioned if they had been swept away. But I said that they would have to be very stupid to both cross at the same time, and if one got into trouble then the other would have come and got us for help. We returned to camp via the hut at Konangaroo Crossing as they have a rain gauge there, and it had shown I think about 60mm of rain in 24hrs.
It rained continuously until Thursday at around midday- but never really heavy. Kanangra creek had become uncrossable Wednesday. The Cox’s was uncrossable on Tuesday when we went to check for the other fisherman. We had until Friday at 2000hrs to be back to Katoomba Police to report in, but actually we could if required phone from Mt Yellowdog up to that time to notify that we would be late. Mt Yellowdog is 1.5hrs from where we were camped. The weather report had not called for rain the whole week. I, at the time (Tuesday) was confident that by Friday afternoon we would be able to cross the Cox’s, unless it continued to rain in and around the surrounding catchment areas. I WAS WRONG.
Friday morning came, Kanangra creek was crossable but the Cox’s wasn’t. We had enough food if we rationed, for at least another 4-5 days if required. We were in no danger of flood from where we were camped. As there was going to be absolutely no way we could cross the Cox’s, I decided that we had no other choice than to activate the PLB. What choice did we have?. If we didn’t arrive or notify the Police by 2000hrs then they would start a search either that evening or the next day, and would certainly use more resources than if we set off the PLB as it would show our exact location. We were very reluctant to activate it, but had to. We moved to the largest cleared location we could find, which was one of the cleared paddocks of the Konangaroo property, and we cut open a few large bright orange garbage bags that we had as pack liners and set them up on the ground and activated the PLB. Exactly 2.48hrs later the NSW Ambulance Service Helicopter came and we were “rescued” and taken to Bankstown Airport.
We spoke at length to the SCAT Paramedics and one of the pilots, and they all agreed that we did the right thing, and they were actually happy we had set off the PLB early, rather than just before dark etc, which made it easy for them to find us. They also stated that the PLB gave them our location to the meter and that made it much easier on them as well. The PLB is an ACR ResQLink 406 GPS PLB.
It was an experience. I was very unhappy having to activate the PLB and use the resources of the NSW Ambulance, and no doubt a considerable amount of taxpayer money, however I had done everything that was required prior to going on the trip – safety wise, apart from actually not going on the trip. I have made plenty of trips to that area before, and had rain etc, but never have I seen the rivers rise so fast. I found out that the other fishermen made it out (only found this out last night!). It was a learning experience and reinforced the need to ALWAYS carry a PLB and fill out a Trip Intention Form etc. But the one issue that I have is – when should you state your return time/day?. If you give yourself say an extra 24-36hrs just in case you are going to be delayed, what then happens if you are in a real emergency? – You are going to have to wait at least that time before a rescue is mounted. The other thing also is that had we not reported in by 2000hrs, how long would it of been until the Police started a serach - another 12 or more hours at least. This is a difficult situation, however after all of this I feel we did the right thing.
I have attached some pics of what the rivers(s) normally look like and during our trip.
- Kanangra ck at campsite
- STREAM AT CAMP.jpg (643.19 KiB) Viewed 10832 times
- Kanangra ck on Thursday
- LOWER K CREEK.jpg (713.36 KiB) Viewed 10832 times
- LOWER K CK FLOOD.jpg (549.07 KiB) Viewed 10832 times
I think you did the right thing considering the circumstances you found yourself in.
