Tuesday 24 January 2023 Bermagui River & Nutleys Creek

 At last, a perfect day for paddling and the added bonus of a 2.00m high tide at 11.00am. We were very happy little chappies :)

The beach was disappearing fast as we got ready to launch and by 9.45am we were off.

Floating up the river on translucent blue water we went under the bridge and headed into the mangroves for a meander through the wetlands.

Rejoining the river we found it - by Bermagui standards - to be quite busy with fishing boats of various types going hither and thither. To escape the noise we paddled on for another 1.5km before venturing into the mangroves searching for tranquility in the hidden lagoon. 

Not long after returning to the river we passed a group of kayakers coming downstream and they would be the last people we saw for another 3 hours.

At 11.25am we pulled in at the confluence. Once again the discussion of  'is this lunch or morning tea' took place and this time lunch was the consensus. With the tide still rising we had to bestir ourselves a couple of times to rescue boats trying to float away and to retreat with our chairs from the rising water.

A little before noon the water went slack so we quickly packed up and by 12.05pm were ready to continue upstream into Nutley's Creek.

The further upstream we ventured the more fish we saw. Kingfishers darted along leading the way and dragonflys were buzzing about over the water. Delightful.

We discovered the limit of our previous paddle when I grounded on the log that had halted our progress

back then. Pic below from September 2022.

This time it was hidden beneath the dark water.  I managed to heave over it.  S&V were, reluctantly, about to follow suit when L found an easier way round.  From then on we oozled our way up the creek, taking touring boats ranging from 14 to 17' where they weren't designed to go. Eventually, our cockpits littered with twigs and leaves we reached a last obstruction before the rockwall (of which you can see a little in the middle distance of the pic below) that marks the absolute paddlable limit of Nutley's Creek. 

V&I in the shortest boats managed to turn. L backed down the creek and S hitched a backward toe hanging on to my boat until we had retreated to a wider section of creek.

Here we rested for a minute or two, feeling well chuffed with our achievement. Upon our return to the limit of our previous paddle we found the water level had fallen and heaving over the log was no longer an option. L cleared his route for the rest of us and after disposing of the bulk of the debris in or cockpits we poddled happily back down the creek.

Back at the confluence about 1.55pm we stopped for 15mins for arvo tea, fueling up for our paddle into the head breeze that had sprung up.

Once back on the water we paddled steadily until we reached the camp ground where we pulled in for a 5 minute floating rest sheltered from the breeze by the mangrove shrubs.

From there it was continuous paddling until just before the bend at Rose bay. From there the force of the outgoing tide negated the head breeze and it was easy going all the way back to our launch site.

Near the end we passed the largest gathering of Masked Lapwings I have ever seen, I counted 75.

We reached our take out at 3.30pm to find a markedly different water level from when we launched in the morning.

So, here is the footage. It's my first go at editing. L has cracked the proverbial and is refusing to edit footage of paddles previously recorded. :( :(  I am hoping it is only a temporary wobbly.  Most of the footage is of our mangrove forays and our paddle up the creek and ends as we are coming back down Nutley's Creek.

It had been a long paddle for us - 19.5kms - so after packing up the boats the only thing possible to do was end a splendid days outing with, what else, but a Bermagui Gelati :) :)

Sitting in the shade enjoying our Gelati we finalised plans for our next away paddle in a couple of weeks time.

Trip notes:

High Tide at entrance:  11.00am 2.00m

Put In/Take Out: Slipway Beach

19.5kms

5hrs 45mins