Friday 23 October 2026 Ocean Grange Day 4: Bunga Arm

 As mentioned in yesterday's blog it was an early start this morning.

We forgot that G's back rest need reinstating, so it was all hands on deck to beat the sunrise.

We made it.

The colours were glorious

Passed the Steamer Jetty which all but L get to see for the first time.

Here comes the sun

KT wanted to paddle backwards as the light was so much better.

More pelicans and cormorants hunting

A magnificent Sea Eagle, perhaps one of the pair we've seen previously.

It flew off after a bit, and headed further up the Arm.

Enjoying the first warmth of the sun,

we paddled on mostly glassy water.

Taking in the scenery.

We came across the Sea Eagle again; this time it stayed put and allowed us to gaze our fill and then we left it behind to, presumably, resume its morning hunt.

Paddling on we aimed for the narrowing ahead which looked like a good place to stop.

After pulling P&G take a walk to dekink

Then it was time for coffee and cake

and a warm up in the sun

whilst L flew the drone.

After the break we paddled across to the other side to check out a couple of the seven camps along the Bunga Arm. This one, Pelican, a favourite of school groups. (see map at end of blog for position of the campsites)

You can see our homing beacon, the Homestead tower, in the distance and the tip of the Steamer Jetty on the bottom left of the pic - about 2kms to go now. It was about this time that we noticed P&G in the Big Yellow Beastie were having a horrible time, the big box acting as G's back rest was catching the breeze coming over our right shoulders and causing them to weather cock violently. 

So with G hanging onto my stern and P onto L's bow we did the paddling for awhile until they had regained their puff. Using my rudder to counteract the weathercocking it was slow but steady going,  so we had plenty of time to look at the birdlife clustered on  Cresent Island.

R also gazing her fill

With the end in sight the YB was set free

65+ years ago this jetty and house did not exist and was the spot where L's family camped in the holdiays and L spent many years imagining Swallows and Amazons as he alternately sailed and rowed up and down the Bunga Arm.

I'm sure that P&G were relieved to be back on dry land, however the rest of us were a bit sad our final paddle in this wondrous place was over.

By now we were more than ready for breakfast, so leaving the boats where they were we grabbed our stuff and headed up to the house for breakfast.

A full three courser - GT's fresh fruit salad, muesli, bacon, poached eggs and fried tomatoes, followed by toast for those that could fit it in. We must have been hungry - a kilo of bacon was consumed in a blink.

After breakfast, GT, still full of vim and vigour and dreaming of kayak camping, went for a walk to check out the nearest two camping spots along the Bunga Arm.

The rest of us had just settled down on the front verandah when in stolled two visitors looking for GT and KT. It was none other than AC and PM, AC being the Kayaking Coordinator of the Walking and Adventure club of which KT and GT are members. They were out for a weekend on the Lakes in PM's 'Tinny'.  Later in the afternoon, after some fruitless ocean fishing, they reappeared after GT had returned and despite intentions of moving on,  ended up having their first sleepover on the new boat moored to the Jetty.

Before dinner Gt and L spent a happy hour lean't over a map looking for and discussing pro and cons of various launching sites for kayak camping up the Bunga Arm. For some reason we all have a desire to paddle to the end of the Bunga Arm. 

Left overs for dinner and a last push on KT's diabolical jigsaw (still not finished - it was started on Gabo Island last year - perhaps we'll finish at next years get together!)

8.1km

Saturday - departure day.

The boat to take us back to Paynesville was early so it was all hands on deck. Getting all our stuff down to the boat was done surprisingly quickly and without the benefit of David and the buggy and trailer - the hand carts and wheelbarrow helping enormously.  I'm afraid we woke AC and PM on their boat as we wheeled rattling cart loads of gear repeatedly passed their boat.

Departing Ocean Grange, 

less luggage this time - all that delicious food now around our waistlines!

Back at Paynesville we unloaded the boat, loaded the cars, loaded the kayaks and at 10.50am (it being too early for lunch) we said our farewells and lastly loaded ourselves and went our separate ways.

At that was, sadly,  the end of our splendid sojourn at Ocean Grange.

Thursday 22 October 2026 Ocean Grange Day 3: Waddy & Cooinda Islands

 Early breakfast as usual before heading down to the water. GS had decided to walk instead of paddling this day so her backrest in the Big Yellow Beastie was dismantled so the two old buddies could paddle together.

Taking to the water R had a mishap, the beginnings of which you will see on the video footage. She emerged from the water boots overflowing with a mixture of sand and mud and dripping a mixture of mud, sand, rotting weed and water from the rest of her.  This pelican fishing completely ignored the splashings and brouhaha going on nearby.

Needless to say R called it a day and headed straight for the shower so we were down to 5 for the mornings foray.

Another pair of swans with five somewhat older cygnets swam by as we headed toward the Cresent Island Point.

 

A Pelican Conclave in full swing?

Thanks to KT and her camera we can now confirm the identification of those brownish birds we saw in the distance on Cresent Island on Tuesday - Bar Tailed Godwits.

According to the Birdlife Australia website Bar-tailed Godwits are the world record holders for non-stop flight: they have been recorded travelling 13,500km from Alaska to Tasmania in only 11 days flying at an average of more than 50kmph, losing almost half their body weight along the way. Amazing!

The Godwits arrive in Australia in August and while most birds leave in April and May, to return to their breeding grounds, some, mostly young birds, remain all year round.

A pair of mature Sea Eagles, one watching us glide by.

The old buddies - one of the few times they weren't yacking away.

No go this way.

Its not only us old farts that need a big stretch now and then!

Coming out of the channel bisecting Waddy Island we get a distant view of part of the approx 3,500km long Great Dividing Range than runs down the east coast from far nothern Queenland and into Victoria before turning and heading west.

The other half of the view.

Heading toward the northern tip of Waddy Island we began looking for a suitable landing, passing one of my favourite shore birds - a Pied Oyster Catcher.

A suitable stretch of vacant beach having been spotted we paddled in.

And in comes GT in his Delta, also a GT :)

Looking across Lake Victoria toward Paynesville (I think!)

L doing a bit of 'droning' whilst the rest of us relax in the sun.

We were then roused by the persistent buzz of a helicopter hovering above the water to the northwest across the lake. After a period of concentrated staring we saw that something or someone - all we could see was a tiny black blob - was being lowered to the water and then, a little later, winched up again. And then repeated twice more. KT then zoomed in with her camera and pronounced it was the rescue helicopter, the crew probably practicing. 

 It must be said that the one drawback of paddling in this part of the world is the man made noise. If its not the motor boats going by its the airforce planes from Sale flying over and around several times a day, and like the planes you can hear the motor boats coming and going for ages. One day we had the Roulettes practicing high overhead as we paddled; you could hardly see them but boy, could you hear them. It must be a god awful continuous cacophony of engine noise during the summer holidays.

Winge over. We set off again paddling to and round the tip of Waddy Island and then headed toward Cooinda Island to try the narrow channel on the western side of that island with the boys in the Yellow Beastie leading the way. It started off okay and then got narrower and more and more shallow with the mud been churned up the YB obscuring any view of the bottom. I pushed my paddle into the mud and it went deeper, deeper and deeper  - uuugh there would be no getting out if one of us stuck fast. So GT and I waited for KT to catch up so we could travel bunched up to help each other if needed. Although the boys, now way ahead in YB, said at times they were ploughing a channel - for us (which couldn't be seen through the mud they stirred up) they at least had clear water to see the best path to take). 

We paddled slowly and cautiously on, occasionally having to avoid big lumps of mud breaking out of the water. It was with heartfelt relief that we rounded a bend and saw, not far ahead, the occupants of YB looking at a jetty - we'd made it through.

From there we paddled steadily back to Ocean Grange and the end of another very pleasant and interesting paddle.

GT hauls in the Yellow Beastie so the old buds don't have to get wet feet.

Relaxing back at the house we caught up on the doings of the non paddlers. GS & R had taken a walk along the beach and had come across hundreds and hundreds of dead large sardine sized fish washed up along the tide line, all of which had holes in the same place on their sides. We pondered the possible causes until GS, our resident tech guru, took the photo R had taken and asked AI. The answer - Australian Mackerel that either had, as individuals in a bait ball, been driven ashore when being pursued by predator fish and then had their swim bladders and some other organ (which I can't remember) pecked out; both organs considered delicacies by gulls and such like. The other - members of a bait ball that had been pushed by predators up so fast from the deep that their swim bladders had burst, blowing a hole in their side.  The same most likely possibilities, I'm pleased to say, that we mere mortals came up with when pondering. 

Once again the afternoon was spent swimming, reading, snoozing, chatting or doing one of the two jigsaws we had going at the far half of the huge dining table. 

Someone had decorated the table for dinner.

And later that evening, celebrating a 70th and an 80th, our excuse for a most enjoyable holiday together in this very special and unique place.

It was then early to bed as a dawn paddle had been decided upon for our last paddle.

6.65km