We met at Payne's Island (toilets just before the bridge), Wallaga Lake at 9.30am. L, who was recovering from an operation on his back and not meant to be paddling, was a late starter - he couldn't bare to see D'd and I driving off with kayaks loaded, and like Bilbo Baggins, ran after us yelling 'wait for me'.
So to spare his back, I doubled up with L in Big Red and D'd took out Bluey.
We set off paddling and L was most disconcerted; temporarily sidelined as El Capitano, the little chicks were not following the mother hen and kayaks were going in all directions. But as the now closed entrance was the first port of call it didn't really matter.
Looking back toward the bridge
Getting close to the entrance
Gulaga, perfectly reflected as we rounded Honeysuckle Island
Rounding the end of Honeysuckle Island
Heading toward the bridge
Emerging out the other side
Drifting down past Akolele
Nearing the end of Wallaga Lake Road Bay
A blurry photo of an Azure Kingfisher returning to its perch during a bath. Unlike usual kingfisher encounters, this one did not flit off as soon as it saw us, instead it ignored us completely being intent of its bath, so we all had the great privilege of being able to sit and watch his ablutions.
Back under the bridge, returning to Payne's Island
Special thanks must go to D'd who proved herself to be a 'boat girl' par excellence; helping unload kayaks, pushing all her fellow paddlers off so we didn't have to get wet feet, and repeating the process at each of our stops and then helping load kayaks at the end of the paddle. It was much appreciated.
After the paddle we met up again at Sundeck for lunch in the sun and where David B joined us.
Trip notes
Put in/take out: Payne's Island, Wallaga Lake
5.5kms
approx 2 1/2 hours
No comments:
Post a Comment