Hi All,
My mate and I did a 3 day trip last weekend on a very scenic stretch of the shoalhaven.
As luck would have it some good rain in the upper shoalhaven catchment let us combine fishing and whitewater making for a great trip!
The Hillview Guage dropped from 0.76 to 0.69 during the trip, their was plenty of water early on but it was getting a little low on the last day, still we managed to bump and dodge our way through with only the odd portage. The rapids I would judge as mostly great 2 and were no trouble for my friend who was packrafting for the first time. There was only a couple of grade 3 rapids which my friend portaged and single grade 4 called the washing machine due to a fierce suckback according to the canoeing guide, it didn’t look too bad at the low level but we portaged just to be safe.
Here a are a few pics from the trip, most of the whitewater and hike im/out was captured on the helmet cam, we hope to put a short video together in the next few weeks. The river is enclosed by the steep sides of the river valley, some great views as a reward for a challenging hike in and out.
Thanks to Duncan for some helpful tips on access!
Cheers,
Gus