NB Aqualife: Friday 15 July 2022 The Murrah

Saturday 16 July 2022

Friday 15 July 2022 The Murrah

Weather Willy had high tide at the mouth today listed as 1.4ms at 9.44am. However when we arrived at Murrah Bridge about 9.00am the water level was too low to start the paddle and there was no sign that the water level at the bridge was rising. Hmm, somewhat perplexing. We retreated to Cuttagee beach and admired the view for 20minutes or so before returning to the Murrah to try to launch once more.

By the time we got onto the water at 10.10am the level was a smidgeon higher and after a bit of boat dragging

there was just enough water to float.

I was busy watching all the bird life on the river when L called 'Wedgies in the tree'.

Luckily I had to GoPro on and hopefully got some good footage.

When the first bird took off we could see it was clutching something furry. (By pressing pause in the video just after it has taken off you can see something held in one of the eagle's talons.)

In the absence of our usual paddling buddies L took the opportunity to practice flying the dreaded drone, so we poddled about, stopped lots and sent the drone aloft and hence covered little distance.

After dragging the boats through this section we

stopped for lunch only to discover I'd forgotten to include forks with which to eat the cous cous salad (so much for trying to eat healthily!). So it was just a muesli bar for us. However it was lovely to sit in the warm sun and watch, and listen to, all the birds going about their business.

After lunch we slowly made our way back up the river, our paddle ending at 1.35pm.

As to the mystery of the low water level, we can only surmise, as we didn't make it down to the mouth, that the entrance is now very narrow and not much water is coming in at high tide.