You cant see him, but A is lurking in the shrubbery flying his drone overhead.
It was lovely to see the lake filled again, although it does have some more to go to get back to pre drought levels. The water was not stinky although a little murky, whether due to run off or algae, I'm not sure. Baby jelly fish were in abundance and the lack of fish was noticeable.
After landing the drone A joined us for a the paddle.
'Social distancing' is the new paddle ettiquette.
As we paddled up Little Cuttagee and the straight we were continuously buzzed by a low flying helicopter. After the fires, we had different reactions - for some the sight and sound was reassuring, for others a cause for alarm.
We found out later that a bad car accident had occurred down at Wapengo and actually two helicopters were landing and taking off from the Cuttagee beach carpark to fly the accident victims to hospital.
Down in the main lake there were plenty of swans
Heading for the entrance to Cuttagee Creek
After we turned into the silt jetties denoting the entrance to the creek we encountered lots of large jellyfish and as V predicted, as soon we went through the dogleg they disappeared.
Up the creek a kingfisher obliged by sitting still long enough for me to get a blurry pic.
Our plan had been to paddle up the creek as far as possible. Unfortunately just beyond the crossing to the Backwater a huge eucalyptus has fallen across the creek, barring our way and a working bee will be required to cut a passage through.
We turned around and headed back down the creek to a small stony beach where we disembarked for a spot of morning tea.
After a rest we continued on downstream
Past various piles of flood debris.
Just before reaching the dog leg we were entertained by a large fish or was it fishes leaping repeatedly out of the water. Of course by the time I got the camera out all that was to be seen were groups of bubbles where each leap had been.
We paddled back down the sheltered creek taking the right hand fork just before the end. As we came out into the main lake the wind hit us like a freight train. This was the first opportunity to try the windometer, or whatever it is called, a present from Santa to L. I had it ready in my PFD pocket and pulled it out and took a measurement - 26.5kmph (have no idea how accurate it is, I can't imagine that Santa would have provided a top of the range model!). Just in the short time I took to take a measurement I was blown 30 metres backward and it took some effort to get Bluey going again. It was then a slow continual slog back up the lake through choppy water and A very kindly dropped back to keep me company.
Catching up with V&S who waited at the turn across the lake we paddled across to the straight. Turning down it we had the wind propelling us along and barely had to paddle. Once back in Little Cuttagee all was calm and sheltered and we had an easy paddle for the remainder of our trip, finishing about 1.00pm. While Cuttagee is not looking her best it was very therapeutic to be back out on the water again.
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