From January 9 to 15, 2010 Matt Brain and I descended to the Salisbury River from Mt. Victoria Cross and negotiated the Salisbury and New Rivers to the ocean. En-route we enjoyed a rare visit to one of the most spectacular waterfalls in Australia; Vanishing Falls, where the river disappears underground in karst country for several kilometres. Sea Eagles, Azure Kingfishers and endemic astocopsis crayfish were fauna highlights. Good stands of King Billy were botanical highlights. In the upper Salisbury we found that the scrub is about as bad as it can get. On day 4 we covered 3km (2mi) with a very solid day’s effort. River levels were disappointing and once we did reach open river country we did a lot of carrying. The rapid that nearly killed me on the New in 2002 was just a tame gutter at low water. To compensate for the difficulty on the uper Salisbury, we walked out to Cockle Ck. from upper New River Lagoon in one day, a journey that takes most parties 2 to 3 days without boats!
Matt will add pictures to his website (http://www.irenabyss.com.au) in due course.
jmac