It was another day with conditions perfect for paddling, the water was gorgeous and once again the forecast breeze failed to make an appearance
.
The more astute of you may notice that the bow of my boat is not pointed upstream but out into the bay! This was because L suggested, when we took to the water, that as the water looked so benign we should cross the river and paddle out into the bay and traitorous S&V agreed!
Even with paddling against the tide it wasn't long before the swells, coming in well defined sets, started to make themselves felt. The further we went the sharper and higher and swells became and I was the first to call it quits. While waiting for a calm patch between the swells in which to make the turn, I told the group of my decision and we all turned back.
Riding the swells back in was lots of fun. Once back in calmer water I was gently chided for my decision, however I could not help notice that no-one had tried to talk me out of it at the time and someone beat me back through the mouth!
Letting the now gentle swells and incoming tide do the work for us
Going past the little beach opposite from where we put in, with a couple of Pied Oyster Catchers sunning themselves on the sand above the stern of L's boat
We stuck close to the southern shore
as S had heard about Severs beach
(no, this wasn't it)
and the vast Aboriginal shell midden hidden behind it. S found Severs Beach and we wove our way carefully through the sneaky little oyster bommes to make landfall. V located the boardwalk
and we took a stroll over the now grass and shrub covered area, the only clue to the past being provided at regular intervals by obliging wombats digging under the boardwalk.
Above extract from: Meeting of the Waters: a Journey on the Marine Side of Australia's Coastal Wilderness. Part 5 Indigenous Coast Heritage - Sapphire Coast
We spent nearly about 40 minutes in this very special, beautiful and historically significant spot.
Looking down toward the mouth of the river from Severs Beach.
L wants me to include this photo for Tim. It reminds L of Bolt Head.
For a really good drone flight over Severs Beach and this part of the river, check out this you tube. It shows why this is one our favourite paddles
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KPKokP4yrdg
Taking to the water again at 11.20am
Midden remains in the shallows off the beach.
Making our way over the shallows, we continued our journey upstream,
still wondering how this trimaran got here.
Drifting on the beautiful water,
we let the tide take us
as we soaked up our surrounds, interspersed, it must be said, with quite a bit of chat.
With barely a paddle stroke required
we reached the lake and actually paddled through the oyster beds, following L - not me, I geographically embarrassed myself AGAIN - to reach the upper part of the river. Deciding we could paddle a bit further before needing a stretch we continued up the river to the Yowaka junction where we stopped for lunch.
We returned to the water about 1.20pm and paddled and picked our way up the Yowaka River.
A not very good pic of the shallow underwater gardens over which we paddled for the first 100 metres or so up the Yowaka.
Once we reached the first bend we had deeper water beneath our hulls and we progressed more quickly up to the rockface.
We continuted upstream
along the rocklined northern edge of the river
until about 50 metres or so short of the highway bridge where we turned around and
retraced our steps back down the river
We returned to junction where I needed to get out and dekink whilst the others floated in the shallows and issued advice and instructions - from a safe distance - for a variety of ways to dekink.
Back on the water we poddled (such was our effort we were overtaken by a fisherman on a heavily laden slapper) back to the boat ramp where we concluded our paddle about 2.50pm, temporarily at peace with the world.
After loading the boats onto the trailer we returned to the river mouth to collect S&V's car, thus ending a perfect day.
Trip Notes:
High tide at Pambula River mouth: 11.40am 1.4ms
Put in: Pambula River Mouth
Take Out: Boat Ramp near Oyster Shed
10.4kms
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