KT was up with the Golden Whistler (that had been singing to us the evening before) and took some early morning photos.
Looking downstram
As we were breakfasting the fisherpeople returned back down the track and ghosted through camp, heading up and down river. Lasletts was proving not to be a 'remote' canoe camp, more of a well trodden pathway.
Just as we were ready to depart a parks truck arrived and KT and I accosted the ranger re the stinky loo at Pattersons and the extremely full one here at Lasletts. He informed us that the Pattersons long drop had been pumped out the morning before and he was escorting the truck, "oh look, here it comes down the track now", to pump out this one. So we were leaving at the right time.
We started paddling sometime between 9.30 to 10.00am. Perhaps J&J or KT can remember the time.
Where is our CKC timekeeper when needed??
L, about to commence the day's paddling
Look, no hands required! J&J make it look soooo easy
Nearly all gorge country now
We got intermittent relief from the oncoming breeze as the river changed direction
And the river continued to widen
"How are you going back there KT?" who was still mainly paddling
We were well and truly into water skiing water now and were supposed to keep to the right of the green markers and travel at no more than 8 knots per hour!
The scenery continued to enchant
Coming up to the Princess Margaret Rose Cave landings where we had planned to stop for a coffee at the tea shop until the young couple from Lasletts who had hiked there the previous afternoon said it sold nothing but cold drinks and thawed/re frozen icecreams.
I tried to pull out just in front of the moored house boat on a shelving bit of what turned out to be knee depth mud - again. Luckily I had only put one leg down and the other was free. L was able to come along side and steady my boat as I heaved/jumped myself awkwardly back in. So no break or caves tour for us.
L checking the map for the next landing point - Dry Creek, on the border. Another 3kms
so onwards we paddled
Once round the next corner we felt the full force of the head wind which was blowing up the river from the coast approx 13kms downstream
The shacks at Dry Creek hove into view
1hour and 40mins after we left Lasletts we arrived at Dry Creek. There was a boat ramp a couple of shacks down from the red shed, but a man and his dog were about to launch their tinny so L&I and KT paddled back up to this hard packed (bliss) beach on the upstream side of the red shack. Bees were swarming all over the damp sand/pebble mix where we landed and we had to tread warily. KT thought they might be after fresh water and sacrificed some of hers but they weren't interested. What they were interested in remains a mystery. Very clean and new public loos were appreciated by us all.
Once the man and his dog vacated the launching ramp the QE3 pulled in and tied up at the jetty beside the ramp.
After 40mins of lounging in the sun, out of the breeze, and chewing the fat with a kayak fisherman, we set forth once more
In the distance we saw what looked like a piece of modern aboriginal rock art, high in the cliffs. KT zoomed in
And then some more, to find it was a cut out bolted onto the rock.
Going passed the outskirts of Donovans landing was this quirky shack
Drawing closer to the boat ramp
We passed more interesting arrangements, some of which look lived in
while the next one along is slowly collapsing into the water. I wonder who cleans up the resultant mess?
There was a boat ramp and a lovely new large jetty a couple of buildings further down from the collapsing shack. KT, L&I pulled in a the old slipway beach as J&J moored to the jetty. If I use the times on KT's pics, we departed Lasletts at 12.55am and and went past the above shack at 3.45am which means we did 6.8kms (or 7.82kms measured on google earth) in two hours 10mins if you take out the 40min stop at Dry Creek. That is well over 3km and hour into a head wind...hmmmm, doesn't seem right.
The upshot of all that musing is that I have no idea when we finished or how long we took. Perhaps KT and J&J could help.
Anyway we were just tucking into our lunch at the picnic table overlooking the new jetty when the young couple from Lazletts arrived, having left some time after us and having paddled non-stop to Donovans. The young man only remembered his lesson about tying on as he stepped out of the boat (his partner having already disembarked) and managed to scrabble back in as it started to drift away.
After tying it to the jetty they joined us for a chat and the girl picked KT's brain about the Mont Blanc walk. However they did not stay long and did not eat anything as they had to get the canoe, which they'd hired, back to Nelson by a certain time and they still had nearly 8kms to go into an increasing head wind.
As lunch drew to a close we started to seriously discuss our next move. Whether to continue the paddle to Simpson's Landing or to call it quits at Donovans. We were reluctant to call it quits, but when we worked out how long it would take to paddle the remaining distance, unload the boats, pack all our gear into the cars, load the boats, retrieve KT's car from Forest Camp South and drive to Bridgewater Bay we realised we wouldn't make our dinner booking. So John called the bloke who had dropped them at Moleside to see if he could pick J and L up from Donovans. He couldn't, but told John to hang tight, he'd try a mate. Within a few minutes he had rung back saying someone would be there in 5 minutes. And they were. Whilst J and L were away KT and I unloaded our boats and carried them from the slipway up to the road. We still had L's boat to carry up when the lads arrived back. With our boats loaded, KT and L went to see if they could be of use to J&J as they loaded the QE3 at the boat ramp as I finished tying our boats down.
With KT on board, we left J&J loading their gear into the car and we drove to Forest Camp South to retrieve KT's car. We then had a very pretty hour or so drive to Bridgewater Bay and our nights lodging at the Seaview Lodge B&B, run by quite an eccentric ( I want to say old, but I can't because he's my age) man. When we arrived he wasn't there and some fellow guests told us our room numbers.
We all had time for long, luxuriant showers - they were excellent - buckets of water - and a glass of wine in the sunroom. Wine finished, it was time to amble along the bay for dinner.
After a cup of tea back at the BB and listening to Jan winkle the owners life story out of him - she is a master 'winkler' and a joy to behold when 'winkling', the more absurd the utterings, so the twinkle in her eye increases - we retired to a REAL and comfortable bed for the night.
Lastly, a couple of evening shots of the bay the B&B overlooks.
After enjoying a good breakfast, cut short by the owner whipping off our plates and cups due to his desire to pay the 'staff' (two young girls) no more overtime than he had too, we went our separate ways. KT drove straight home, again stopping in Inverleigh and this time trying the bakery. And L and I wended our way up to Darraweit Guim via Warrnambool, where we caught up with some old friends whom we had not seen for 12 years and with whom we had stayed at the Seaview Lodge 15 or more years ago. I know not what J&J did.
Another fantastic paddle crossed off the bucket list. Many thanks to KT, who suggested and organised the trip.
6.8 kms (7.82 Google earth)
46.5 kms in total (Parks notes)
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