Oh the arms felt it by the end of todays journey! A cool night according to everyone in there caravans but we both slept like logs and didn't feel cold at all ... it seems that the more valuable the caravan the less they spend on a good doona ... a down doona would go a looooooong way in a caravan to keeping them warm!
So todays plan was to go down, under and around to the other side of Lakes Entrance to the Esplanade and have some fish and chips for lunch ... estimating it would take us just on an hour to get there by kayak (ironically we could have walked to the fish and chip shop in less than 10 mins!)
We head off and again it is a very calm day, hardly any wind at the time and a few boats here and there. It is not until we get closer to the bridge that we encounter recreational boats so we slip over to the right hand side only to come back again to the left just before the bridge ...
getting to where the fishermans co-op is we decide to go down on the right hand side of the Cunninhame arm where there is very few boats moored and it is predominantly beach. So paddling along and again it is lovely and sunny and we decide to take a break in a little bay and beach ourselves ...
by now we can see boats coming up and down this arm and there is a speed boat towing some rubber thing with kids in it and then they switch over to someone water skiing. So we continue on and battle through the waves they create to get to the pedestrian bridge ...
we then decide to go back to our beach spot and cross over there to the other side, personally I would have preferred to cross over here at the bridge but Neil seemed reluctant to go on the other side where all the boats are moored ... so we go back and this speed boat is going up and down and we finally get to cross and beach ourselves just up from the fish and chip shop .... I tell you it was lovely fish and chips ... the chips were so crispy!
Originally we had planned to return to the other side of the Cunninghame arm and go back down to our turning point at bullock island but I said it was safer to stay on this side (right side now) with all these moored boats as it seems to be bedlam out in the arm .... and it was a good decision as all boats going out stayed on the left and all boats coming in stayed on their right! LOL not quite sure what goes on we regard to that so we were perfectly safe going in and out of the piers with the moored boats as no one was going anywhere and when they did move the moved very slowly.
So at our turning point we duck up the quiet estuary which comes to a T junction and we wait to join the flow going up the north arm just before the bridge and it is like peak hour. Most boats are small but there was a large speed boat (not going fast at all) passing in front of us as we were merging and it created 2 big waves and we got over the first wave but the second came up and over our front and poured into where my legs were so I quickly unplugged the plugs to let the water out but too late I was saturated ... I hate having a wet bum! so we got under the bridge and pull over so I can bail out some of the water that is in my compartment where I keep my box of knick knacks ... I must remember to carry a bailing container with me from now on!
From here it is a straight run to the campground ... the wind is blowing from a south east so it is a head wind and now I can feel it between the shoulder blades but still manage to paddle on knowing that I am sure to experience worse discomfort in the future so I might as well get over it and paddle!
Todays paddle was around 2 hours in total with a 30min lunch break ... not bad.
No comments:
Post a Comment