The mighty Davey Gorge.
This is where the Davey River has cut through an impressive quartzite range. The river must be quite deep through this gorge as there are no major rapids of note, only some standing waves and a couple of wave trains. Gabe did manage to capsize on one of these standing waves while trying to surf but he rolled back up within a couple of seconds, paddle in hand. As we entered the gorge proper we realised we have arrived to a very special place indeed.
The quartzite cliffs rose up on both sides of us, with the strata layers in the rock clearly visible. We floated gently down, with a million years of the river’s work towering over us. We were silent in the presence of a sacred place.
Gabe taking a moment in the gorge. Pentax MX, Portra 800, Nov 2025.
The Davey below the gorge opens right up into an estuary and we had a strong WNW wind that pushed us along but also opposed us at times with the turns of the river. We saw a pair of black swans and also some seagulls fly over us. The mountains of the SW rose up around us.
We got to Settlement Point around midday. This is the end of the estuary and the start of Port Davey. We ran some laps as we were starting to get cold in the wind. By this time we had made the decision not to cross Port Davey with our rafts due to the wind and swell forecast we received in the previous days. So we were committed to walking across Lost World Plateau back to the Port Davey track. We just had to get to Heather Bay first, which meant crossing Payne Bay, the northern, more sheltered end of Port Davey. It was still the ocean in a way, so I was a bit uncertain about paddling on to Heather bay as we could see white caps near the headlands we had to paddle around. But Gabe felt confident so we leashed ourselves to our rafts and went for it.
Gabe, smiling as always when on moving water. Pentax MX, Portra 800, Nov 2025.
The looming walls of Davey Gorge. Pentax MX, Portra 800, Nov 2025.
There was a solid 40-50km/h westerly and a fair bit of fetch. The swell was a NW-er and less than a metre in most places but it was windy enough to form white caps. We also had to paddle around quite a few rocky islands, some of them involved sharp rocks sticking above the water.
Around 2pm we did a surf landing onto Heather bay. The waves weren’t massive but enough to have a brief moment where I thought I might capsize. As the wave picked me up from behind my raft was effectively vertical but I managed to stay in (just). I was pretty fatigued by this point so was very glad to have made it to Heather Bay. I think I would have got seasick if we had to keep paddling through the swell for much longer.
Gabe starting the paddle through the gorge. Pentax MX, Portra 800, Nov 2025
There was a perfectly fine campsite among the forest right near the beach but my notes had a campsite marked up Kellatie Creek. So we paddled up a few hundred metres and found a shitty little campsite in the scrub which someone had cleared previously and which we improved slightly with our saw. There were a lot of sharp tea tree sticks pointing straight up. We later discovered the water table sat about 5cm below the ground here, which wasn’t great news for our toileting situation in the morning, but the water here was brackish anyway so at least we consoled ourselves with knowing we didn’t pollute any drinking water. But we would have been better off camping in the forest at the beach.
While most of our conversations throughout our trip with Gabe centred around the exact number of squares of chocolates left in our rations, another popular conversation topic was discussing which of our campsites was the worst one. While there were some close runner ups, including ‘Slimey Ridge’ (to be discussed in later chapters) in my opinion ‘Up Kellatie Creek’ was the worst of our camps. One good thing about it was that we were nearly in the open. While our camp itself only had an up close view of the scrub, a short walk would reveal to us the next the way towards Lost World Plateau.
Looking up stream from Davey Gorge. Pentax MX, Portra 800, Nov 2025.
PS: (from my trip log): Intermittent showers today had us wishing we had brought a tarp. Also, the scrub is very pokey here, a footprint for the tent would have been a good idea. Hope the showers break up a bit tomorrow so we don’t have to carry our wet gear across Lost World Plateau. 3 days to go till resupply at Melaleuca.
A.S. 9/1/26, A3 Highway, East Coast Lutruwita.