South OZ Adventurers - Adventure, Travel, Expeditions


Endicott Arm

Endicott Arm is the lesser known but equally impressive sister to Tracy Arm. They both meet in Holkman Bay to flow out into Stephens Passage.

We spent four days up in Endicott Arm. Three days that were as different as the weather we experienced there.

We paddled up from Hobart Bay, hoping to meet up with the kayak rangers and stay in there base camp. After 8 hours of paddling through freezing rain we were pretty excited to be staying in a cabin, drying out and hanging with some fellow kayakers. Needless to say in the darkness we missed there camp and we forced to stay in a dark wet swampy campground not more than a mile from the rangers camp.....

The next day it was still cold and raining for our paddle up to the cabin that was marked on the map about half way up the arm. Excellent we'll be able to dry out there and make it a base for the next few days of exploring Endicott. Paddling along the granduer of Endicott Arm was somewhat hidden in the low clouds that were drenching us. However it was still quite impresssive to be paddling alongside 1500 metre peaks and glaciers.

We found the cabin no problems, excpet that all that was left of it was about 3 feet of one wall and a few ghosts, who we both heard a couple of times....

Endicott is the home of the little know but very impressive Ford's Terror, named after the terror that filled one sailor, Ford, when he rowed up there on slack water and was met an hour later by a raging torrent at one point when he was trying to come back out.

There is a major tidal flow that races out through a constricted elbow that is only 18 feet deep and 100 feet wide, where water out of the 300 feet deep, half mile wide and 5 mile long arm is trying to puch through on the incoming and outgoing tides every day. This results in a white water course that would do most rivers proud, with 3 foot standing waves and upto 15 knots of current. Needless to say this is something that you want to tackle at slack water, especially in sea kayaks, in white water boats it would probably be best whilst it is really pumping!!

We waited about 2 hours in the freezing rain watching the torrent slowly drop enough for us to be able to paddle up against the current.

Once inside it was definitely well worth the wait and effort. We were greeted by 100 metre cliffs rising straight out of the water and mist hanging, half way down the countless waterfalls that plunge into the depths.

After spending three hours in Ford's Terror it was time for us to head out, if we wanted to make it out on this tide, or else it would be another 6 hours waiting for low again!

The next day the sun finally came out, and we spent a couple of hours trying to dry out all of our soaking gear.

We headed up that afternoon to see Dawes Glacier, 14 miles further up Endicott Arm. The arm was more impressive in sunshine, and grew more impressive the further up we paddled. With the peaks growing larger, the cliffs taller and steeper, and the sides closer. We continued right up until we got to within about a mile of the foot of the glacier, about as close as you should safely go, and decided that as it was 10 o'clock it was probably time to start heading back to camp.

The night quickly closed in to become one of the best nights of paddling either of us had ever had on water. There was phosphoresence lighting up the water and the first stars we had been able to see for the last couple of weeks. No sooner had I said that it would be great if the northern lights would come out that we were greeted with almost an hour of nature's own sky show. With the lights dancing all over the northern sky and the phosphourous lighing up the water it was a moment that reminds me why I paddle, and had made the last 3 days of constant wet worth every moment.

With more sunshine the next day it was amazing to get to see all of the peaks that had been clouded in three days previously as we paddled up the arm. With 1500 metre peaks rising less than a mile from the water, and glacier hanging above the water, we paddled the 13 miles out of Endicott Arm to the ranger's camp, only to find that there was no-one there anyway. We spent the afternoon lazing on the beach, soaking in the wamth of the sun and finally drying out all of our still wet gear.