Raging Barron, muddy hell.
January 2023
Pack rafter heading into the Roosters Tail Barron Gorge, mid November 2022.
Mid November last year and Barron Gorge had nice water flow and the white water enthusiasts were having a lot of fun.
In the middle of the Rooster’s Tail.
The water was nice and clear but that would soon change as we headed into 2023 and the wet season arrived.
The entrance to the Rooster’s Tail, Barron Gorge 11th January 2023.
By the 11th of January 2023 a fair bit of rain had fallen and the water was starting to brown. However more rain was coming.
Barron Gorge, 15th of January 2023.
Just four days later the weather was very gloomy and all but the very highest of rocks in Barron Gorge were now under very muddy water.
Rafting tour in Barron Gorge, 27th November 2022.
Pretty much every day weather permitting tour companies take rafts filled with noisy tourists down the Barron in the afternoon. I can hear their screams from high up on the hillside and set my watch by that and the noise of the Kuranda Train.
At quieter sections the tourist exit the rafts and float down the river. There were no tourist on the river on the 15th of January 2023 and if they were they certainly would not be exiting the rafts..
Rafting crew on the Barron 15th January 2023.
I stay away from the tour companies and their clients. My only interaction with them is to pick up the rubbish some of their clients leave in the Gorge and to return the odd paddle I find in the river.
I know many of the kayakers from my years in the Gorge but none of the rafters. The rafting companies are running a business, I don’t really want to be around screaming tourists, I avoid them as best I can.
A lonely rock in the middle of Barron, 15th January 2023.
I have for the last couple of weeks been hoping to bump into some of my kayaker friends coming down the river to practise a photography technique called panning. The technique is very similar to a long exposure but on a moving subject.
To photograph this rock I set the camera up on a tripod, focused on the stationary rock and with a long enough exposure the water motion blurs.
Panning is the same longish exposure technique, minus the tripod (handheld) and imagine the rock is moving. You have to move the camera at the same pace as the moving object to keep it sharp and everything else motion blurred. I want to learn how to do this better.
Dragonfly on the banks of the Barron, 15th of January 2023.
All I needed to practise was a moving subject coming down the river. As I waited for one I passed the time exploring the little things on the bank of the river.
At the side of the river there were little rock pools filled with clear rain water in which I found a floating dead insect and some very active crustaceans.
Of course as always there many spiders to photograph and here are just a couple I took photos of as I waited for subject to paddle down the river.
My only panning shot that day.
None of my friends were on the river that day and the only chance I got to practise panning was the rafting company crew doing a second run down the river. As I saw them approach I debated to take photos or not.
In the end I took photos despite one of the rafting crew poking his tongue out at me and a few “different” looks from what I am used to from the kayaking community.
Boring photo but good practise. The rafter in the centre is much sharper than pretty much everything else in the photo. Progress but I need more practise :)
Rafting crew heading down the Barron late afternoon, 15th January 2023.
I watched the raft head down the river as the rain started to settle back in. I headed home feeling the day had been slightly successful. I got to practise a little bit of panning photography, had some fun time with the little creatures on the bank of a raging Barron………. and affirmed my long held decision to avoid the rafting companies :)
If you want to see some of my friends tackle a raging Barron in kayaks then check out this video below I took back in January 2021.