Paddlers: Sebastian Graf, Stuart Montgomery, Christopher Greed,
We spent Sunday afternoon running laps of Hardibut Rapid at ~65m3. Only the river-right and middle channel were flowing at this level, but the volume of water created some big stoppers so it was an awesome afternoon. We could've spend days at the rapid exploring all the slides and drops. By complete chance a family of five was at the get-out and gave us a ride back to the car, saving a potential 2hr walk
in 35C heat. They also offered to run shuttles for us if we go up again, it's amazing how generous the locals are.
Monday was a 4:30am start to sort the shuttle and get on the river by 8am. We ran Ross Graham-Nature's Window (42km, 7.5hrs) at around 55m3 which made the big rapids more technical. Stu said it's easily the best river in WA south of the Kimberley and I couldn't agree more. Paddling big volume class IV rapids through 400-million-year-old gorge was quite surreal. The last hour was a flatwater slog and
a tough hike up the cliffs to the window, but was worth it for the view. All in all it was a safe and amazing trip with great company, along one of WA's oldest, longest and most elusive rivers.
