When we are in the bottom of an abyss, we are already past the halfway mark. Even though the bulk of the labour is still ahead of us, there is no decision to be made. We must climb up and extricate ourselves. There is no choice, if we wish to return.
The paddy made tent on Little Plateau. April 2023, Hasselblad 500 CM, Ektar 100.
I started early the next morning. I climbed through a mixture of tangled rainforest and tea trees. In three hours, I gained about one kilometre of horizontal and about four hundred metres of vertical distance. I followed the ridge NE for another hour, and that brought me to a high point, with an open buttongrass lead in front of me.
As the view slowly opened up around me, I was able to appreciate the dramatic nature of the landscape I was in. The western end of the Cradle Plateau terminates in the gorge of Sutton's Creek, which rivals Fury Gorge in steepness and scale. I saw crumbling scree slopes of quartzite, and thick rainforest with patches of the golden fagus cloaking the precipitous slopes dropping down to the river.
The unfortunate turn of events for Hellyer and his men was that after they climbed out of Fury Gorge, they descended to the gorge of Sutton's Creek. I imagine they didn't realise that the plateau they were on connected to Cradle Mountain or the depth of the snow was too great for them to make progress through it and they were forced to descend again. Camping down the bottom of Sutton's Creek was the low point of their expedition. 'It now became a serious question whether we should extricate ourselves at all...'. The next day, Hellyer's party crossed a creek that was swollen by the snowmelt and he noted: 'a torrent that made us start, its fury was beyond anything we could conceive of water'. Perhaps it is from this reference that the Fury River got its name?
The old paddy made tent. April 2023, Hasselblad 500CM, Delta 100.
It was the 21st of November, 1828, the day they all thought they would perish. Instead, Hellyer and his men climbed out of Sutton's Creek, crossed Hounslow Heath and reached the more sheltered Cradle Valley. 'We felt we were in the land of the living once more... In fact it was an escape from a snow prison.'
For me, it was the 25th of April, 2023. The weather was fine, and I had no intention to descend to Sutton's Creek. I was knackered, running low on water and I hoped I was going the right way. I was still on an unknown ridge to me and unable to see where it was leading me. The open buttongrass had turned to tea tree thickets, and I was making excruciatingly slow progress.
Eventually, I reached a rocky high point. I had been climbing for seven hours. It was here that the view fully unfolded around me. And I finally sighted that the little finger of plateau I was on connected to the Cradle massif. I wouldn't have to descend to Sutton's Creek. Relief washed over me. I had climbed out of Fury Gorge!
I took one last look down, and said goodbye to my old friend.
It will be some time before I visit the Fury River again.
The Fury Valley, from Little Plateau. April 2023, Hasselblad 500 CM, Portra 800.