Dusky treck

video of Dusky, not my trip https://vimeo.com/49965598

very interesting video.

I've done the Dusky track twice. I had fairly favourable weather the first time and the track was in reasonable condition, the side trip out to Supper Cove very pleasant, with most of the mud avoidable.....until we reached Kintail Hut where the heavens opened, the rivers rose at warp speed and we found ourselves stranded there for two nights squashing sandflies. But overall the Dusky experience didn't seem too much of a challenge if you're used to tramping off NZs Great Walks. I returned again a few years later in the same month, and had a completely different experience. Army assault course it definitely was! We had kilometre after kilometre of huge piles of diabolical tree fall to navigate, and relentless bog, wading large sections of flooded track. The bridge by Loch Maree Hut had recently been underwater with huge branches caught in the wires and some of the V batons bent out of shape - hard to imagine when you've seen how high the bridge usually hangs above the river level. Recent and present weather conditions on the track will determine what sort of experience you have. You need to be prepared to get stuck in the huts in the Seaforth Valley if its wet. It's not a good place to go if you have dodgy hips, knees or ankles and an aversion to being wet. Make sure you don't have a tight time line with unforgiving transport connections. Would I go back again? Yup!

I remember sitting in Loch Maree reading the hut book and entries talking about the 3 Wire across the Seaforth being under water. I didn’t believe it, you can see it in that video Wayno posted... the bridge is 3 metres up in air ABOVE the stream bed, on the floor of a huge flood plain. I did get flooded in there for a day but the water vanished as fast as it appeared.

Fiordland has the highest rainfall at sea level in the world. i've been there when its rained half a metre in a day and a half. the seaforth doesn rise much above sea level for miles, gravity wont help much when the rain pours off the valley walls , so the water backs up, people have to get rescued from fiordland valleys because they get caught out by rapidly rising rivers, been more than a a few people had to climb trees to get away from the rising water. the milford track is similar, its not uncommon to be wading waist deep in water on the track, or people are held at the huts when it gets deeper, on occasion it goes on for days and they have to helicopter them out. This is what bowen falls looks like when it rains like that https://tramper.nz/16524/

Your stories are amazing guys. Thank you.