Day 4 @ Killarney!

As you can see from the title we are at a different place than what we anticipated!  You may remember this place Dad - it is about 20km after Warranambool and 10km before Port Fairy.

It was a cooler night than anticipated mainly because we have come off the coast and are inland a bit.  It was quiet until the trucks started up along the highway.  We woke to a very nice day with more blue sky than grey sky ... yay we may see the sun ... No it soon went when we hit Heywood and disappeared all together by the time we go to the coast ... still grey and gloomy.  We did however decide that we will go to the mouth of the Fitzroy river and kayak as far up as we can but instead of staying there we thought we would go on to Killarney and stay there for 2 nights and on the 2nd day go to Port Fairy and kayak the Moyne from Port Fairy out to the inlet.

So at the turnoff to the mouth of the Fitzroy there is a fence on our left with shoes hanging of it ...

 some good shoes too!
When we got to the parking bay the wind is really blowing and it is very cold, so we put our long leggings on and thermals and hit the water - the water is very cold and with the wind chill factor your feet get cold so I dry mine and put them in crocs whereas Neil uses Rays' aqua shoes (which I am going to get some if I can find a place that sells them still!)
So we decide to go down to the mouth of the river where it comes out to the sea ... more like where the sea comes into the river!

 as you can see I am wearing my beanie as it is showery and the wind is bitterly cold!

we turn around and start heading up the river - it takes us 30mins to get to the mouth of the river and back again to where the car is parked - a nice warm up ... so we continue up to see how far we can get - it is a nice wide river and the wind is pushing us along ...

 Neil decides to practice his selfies ...

 Leanne - Neil says that you need to smile when you take a selfie ... I say Neil needs to open his eyes when he takes a selfie!
So paddling along and there are a few out in their tinnies and one in a kayak that is motorised - Dad you would have loved that one! and we have gone about 45mins up stream when we come to a split - Neil goes left and I go right .... here is what Neil sees 10mins later ...

 here is what I see 10mins later!

 yep my right turn was the wrong one and I see the narrow part heading towards Neil and I can hear him but mine got so narrow that I couldn't go any further and then I had to turn around and get back!  My kayak was longer than the width of this passage ... lets just say I had to do not a 3 point turn but closer to a 27 point turn!  At one point I couldn't turn anymore and I couldn't just hop out and move it as it was deep!  so I started to paddle and ram the reeds to make it wider for me to turn!  Man I was cursing!  Ha Ha Ha - I met Neil on the way back as he wondered why it was taking me so long!
So we head back after going 1 hour up stream, knowing that we will be going back with a headwind and it will be tough we set out and found it wasn't to bad at all - in fact it was quite hard for the last 30mins as you get closer to the car park as it is more  exposed to the wind coming up from the mouth of the river.  We get back at the same time it took us to get up there!  We find that when we are faced with the strong winds we find we can still maintain a good speed as you treat it like a headwind on a pushbike - don't fight it just get into a cadence and paddle!
We were however relieved to see the warm car, we are warm paddling but once you stop it is cold, we get out and we start taking stuff out of the kayak and because I had heaps of stuff in the kayak from where I went through the narrow reeds I start trying to clean mine out and getting no where I am frustrated and Neil comes over to see why I am taking so long and next thing you know I move my feet but the jandals are stuck in the clay and my feet come out and trip me up and wooooops there I go splash in the water - I didn't have a shower last night so I am having mine now in very cold water! I quickly leap out of the water as it is cold and I give up on trying to clean out the kayak.  We move quickly to get the Kayaks out and on the roof of the car as I am get cold from being soaked through.  After a quick change into dry clothes we have lunch and hot coffee from the flasks - that was just heaven!
So happy we didn't stay there and camp (you can but the only facility is toilets and it is a popular spot!) as with the wind coming up from the beach it is absolutely freezing.
So we get to Killarney and the campground around the sports field hasn't changed and we are nestled behind the dune so it is relatively sheltered from the howling winds blowing off the ocean.

The laundry is free so I managed to wash my wet clothes and also the pants I have been living in since I left Melbourne because someone said the weather is lovely here along the coast in April so I brought nothing but shorts and only 1 pair of pants so here I am sitting here in my shorts with my long john polyprops under them while my pants dry ... not happy Jan!
Plenty of people here camping - alot of families but there is loads of room for everyone and the kids are quiet.  Will stay here tomorrow night and go tomorrow to Port Fairy to kayak there.