Tag Archives: plane

Brilliant bird’s eye view

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Thankyou blog follower Ju.  Recently Ju connected me with a woman with a husband who has a Private Pilot’s Licence.  Once I made contact, Michelle and Dave were delighted to fly me in their four seater plane, a Cirrus SR20 which Michelle referred to as the BMW of the skies.

Today we flew.  Not a cloud in the sky.  Clean blue sky. Hardly a breeze.  The landscape rich and varied.  The Derwent River sparkled from start to finish.

The experience was stunningly magnificent.  I love words but I find it difficult to express my excitement, my pleasure, and the sheer joy of the flight in the depth which I felt.  There below me was the river I have come to love and know a little more. There below me were the tracks, paths, roads and landscape over which I have walked – and I laughed occasionally remembering certain experiences during my walks. There below me were logging tracks, dam roads, and fading vehicular pathways.  And then we were flying over impenetrable sections which may not be walkable.

We left Hobart airport and flew to Storm Bay by rounding the Iron Pot, then we followed the river upstream to the source. Dave flew on until we reached the northern most point of Lake St Clair. The return journey was equally as beautiful and engaging. The light had changed presenting us with a ‘new’ landscape.

Of the hundreds of photos taken by Michelle, friend Chantale and myself, I include a tiny selection here.

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The photo above taken by Michelle caught me totally preoccupied by the view.

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MIchelle’s photo above shows the Derwent River snaking around the Claremont Golf course with Cadbury’s Chocolate Manufacturing buildings in white to the left.

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The photo above shows a straight section of the Derwent River before the township of New Norfolk on the upper left.

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The photo above shows the Derwent River circling part of Reid’s cherry orchards.

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Chantale’s photo of the Pumphouse Point accommodation projecting into Lake St Clair, also shows the dam across the Derwent Basin where the water enters St Clair Lagoon.  The source of the Derwent River starts to the right of the photo.

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Michelle’s photo above shows part of sprawling Hobart set against the Derwent Harbour.

Those photos taken while flying over the river westwards of Gretna will be incorporated into the stories of my walks from Gretna onwards, in future posts.  From now on, you can expect both ground-based and aerial photos to enrich the stories.
I feel like the luckiest person in the world for the opportunity to travel in a smooth flying small plane, to see the Derwent River winding through the landscape in glorious blueness, and to be reminded Tasmania is a superb place. A truly wonderful and memorable day. Thankyou to all concerned.

Touching the River

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Blog followers know that electrified and barbed wire fences, unenterable gates, tangles of thorny blackberry canes and impassable private property have limited my direct access to walk against the Derwent River.  Since my project is not to walk on the highways and byways, and knowing I cannot start out from Gretna and go further by the River as I have hoped and wanted, I believe I need to change my ‘rules’ about this project.

The changes must happen because I am determined to get to the source of the River at Lake St Clair, even if it means doing so by using transport provided by friends, and if it means I can’t be near the river every metre of its length.  I feel I must accept what is possible rather than wailing about the impossible.

Therefore, I am researching all the main roads, backroads and tracks that go towards the river with its dams and lakes, and which do not have locked gates across them preventing access. I plan to create a list of these opportunities and then ask friends whether they would like to volunteer to drive me to one or more of the options.  In the next few days I will post the list on this blog – perhaps there may be other southern Tasmanian blog followers who would like to volunteer to drive me to one or more of these ‘touchings of the river’ – if so, when you see the list please email me at walkingthederwent@gmail.com.

Wherever I ‘touch’ the river I hope to be able to walk north and/or south as far as possible simply to feel more comfortable about saying, in the future, that “I did my best to walk from the mouth to the source”.  That is, I want to limit the amount of qualification I will have to give to that statement.  Quite possibly when I reach one of the touch points, I may determine a longer walk can be achieved. If I find this to be the situation, then I will return with backpack and tent if necessary.  In this way, the touchings of the river will amount to a reconnaissance.

Another option that I am investigating is whether I might fly either in a small plane or helicopter and follow the curves of the Derwent River, photograph it from on high and then incorporate the photos into stories about those edges of the river on which I cannot walk or otherwise reach.  I suspect flying may be out of reach financially so the thought of crowd funding has crossed my mind.  But before then, more research will be needed.

The option to canoe/kayak along sections of the River scares me half to death.  A family friend recently travelled in this way over a short section and has never been so frightened.  Apart from the dangers of the Derwent River’s water levels being unexpectedly changed as the water volume in upstream dams are managed, the dozens of rapids that punctuate so many stretches of the river present unsupportable dangers. I guess I lack the courage to try.  Or maybe it’s the unbelievably cold water I don’t want to fall into.

What haven’t I thought of? Any suggestions will be welcome. This idea is too much fun to be stymied by physical barriers.