Heading up to the bridge the current really picked up and we were whooshed under the bridge and up around the next corner. We paddled easily across the oyster leases and around the bend saw these??? on the edge of the wetlands.
Possibilities Whimbrel or Eastern Curlew. According to the bird bible the Whimbrel is rare on the southern coast but it is about the right size and the Eastern Curlew is seen along this coast but is too big! Whichever they are they have flown all the way from Siberia!
Paddling through the mangroves
We came across some mangroves covered in yellow seed pods. I couldn't get a better shot as the current was quite strong and was pushing us along, making steering difficult - definitely need to improve the my boat maneuvering skills.
Got whooshed around the next bend. The surface disturbance is the current not wind
Once past the bend the water returned to glass and the clarity was amazing
Into the mangrove we head - our mission to see if we could get through and cut the corner
An amazing amount of sea grass in here and loads of fish
At 9.40am we stopped for a 5 min leg stretch on the other side of the little hidden lagoon
Upon boarding our boats we continued wending our way through the mangroves searching for a lead back to the river
Unfortunately, we weren't successful and we wended our way back through the mangroves and out into the river once more. We paddled on upstream, passing a paddle boarder and two kayakers battling their way downstream against the current. We found our usual lunch spot full of tents and with no beach and the big log under water we continued to the next bend where, at 10.55am, L declared he just had to get out. At a tiny spit of land with no shade so he resorted to this. What is our adage about never letting L choose our lunch spot!!!
35mins later, after watching the water rise up L's chair he determined that slack tide was not long off, we headed off back downstream.
Back down beside the topmost oysterbeds and look at the water
The water was beautiful, but now it was the wind ruffling the water and not the tide
Floating with the now outgoing current
Paddling to catch the whoosh around the bend
Once round that bend, the wind picked up in force we battled back against a 25+kph headwind on very lumpy (made worse by the wind blowing the water up against the outgoing tide). They were the biggest waves I have so far paddled through. And going under the bridge was most unnerving - a 3-4 foot chop, coming from every which way pushing us relentlessly toward the pylon as the tide was sucking us out. Scary. But we made it, and once through the bridge we clung to the shoreline where the water was far more calm and we could relax. Lesson: Don't paddle through the middle arches of the bridge when there is a strong outgoing tide and the wind is in opposition and I need to work on my paddle skills.
However the upstream and half the downstream paddle was beautiful. We have never seen the water so clear so far up the river.
11.5kms
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