Monday 1 May 2017 Tomaga River

With L's significant birthday fast approaching he decided we would go and look at a 2nd hand Tarpon 140 for sale down at Bournda.  We looked at the boat last Saturday and he was smitten. On Sunday we went out on Cuttagee Lake for a trial run and, besides the colour, he was very pleased with his purchase.

Joining us for Monday's paddle, on the Tomago River up at Mossy Point, were K&A and R. Because R and I were the weakest paddlers in this group and because it would be, for us, a long paddle, we decided to team up together in Big Red.

Once again, the King of Tides had worked out our timing and the plan was to paddle up river with the incoming tide and return with the outgoing tide. The aim was to get to the Mogo Zoo in the hope of seeing a giraffe looking over the fence. From memory we started off about noon.

R and I turned out to be a match made in heaven - as far as paddling goes, In a short time we had sorted out our rhythm and we were skimming across the water in perfect (well nearly perfect) unison.

So much so that we kept getting way out in front and eventually got ticked off by the tour leader.

The first half of the paddle upstream was mainly through mangroves interspersed with houses and the second half, through a mixture of forest and farmland.

K cruising along in her new pedal powered Hobie

 Haul out points were nigh on impossible to find and hunger eventually drove us to make land on a swampy bit of farmland. L's new boat in the middle

After lunch we continued paddling upstream for another 20 minutes or so, looking for giraffes. However the tide turned and we didn't know how much further we had to go (someone, who shall remain nameless, had forgotten the map), so it was reluctantly decided to turn around and head back to Mossy Point. Not long after turning around R and I disturbed a really weird looking large fish investigating a floating mass of weedy stuff. (we later identified it to be a Wobbegong Shark)

Heading back downstream

By the time we got back to the boat ramp the tide was flowing out quite hard and we had to use a bit of power to cross the flow to the ramp and in the shallows we paddled over a huge stingray, making the three of us jump.

Trip notes:

High Tide (Fort Dennison): 12.32pm 1.41ms
Put in/Take out: Mossy Point Boat Ramp
17.5km