As we drove down to Orbost on Saturday it started to rain and memories of last April's misadventure to Marlo surfaced; we hoped we weren't in for a repeat.
Much to our relief the rain stopped before we reached our destination late in the afternoon. S&V arrived a couple of hours later and after settling in we headed off to Orbost Club Hotel for an early dinner where, whilst we ate, plans and schedules for the morrow's paddle were discussed and made.
With an 8.00am departure agreed, upon our return to the motel if was early to bed and hopefully a good night's sleep.
We set off the next morning, a tick before 8.00am for the 10 minute drive to the Bete Bolong tennis court where we would leave S&V's car. From there it was another 30 minutes or so to our put in point at Sandy Point. With the devastation wrought by the 2019/2020 bushfires still apparent we wondered what the paddle would be like and how different it would feel to our October 2019 paddle when the bush, albeit dry, was still intact.
On the last of the steep section down to the river.
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Not only had the track being repaired since the fires, we discovered new picnic tables and a loo has been installed - very civilised.
We set about unloading the boats and packing our gear before dragging/sliding them down the steep bank to the river's edge.
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Speaking of water: the level on the Jarrahmond gauge when we paddled this section in October 2019 had being 1.13m - this time it was 1.58ms, a noticeable difference.
Taking to the water at 9.30am, L first led us upstream for 250+ metres before we turned to head downstream to negotiate our first little gravel race of the day.
Despite the head wind, the current floated us along at a reasonable clip and other than keeping an eye out for hazards we sat back and took in our surrounds. In some areas the thick wattle regrowth brought to mind our recent discussions with NP's when a couple of staff came to talk to us about a future hazard reduction burn along our boundary. We have a large and healthy population of lyrebirds and other wildlife busily working over the forest floor that surrounds us helping the leaf and bark litter to break down. Given that the benefits of a HR burn only last a few years our opinion is that, for our situation, there are far more potential hazards in conducting a hazard reduction burn than a short term benefit warrants.
Along the way we saw Water Dragons, Azure Kingfishers and excitingly a Sacred Kingfisher. We had a good sighting of a Wedgetail Eagle taking off from a tree right beside the river and again a little further downstream.
In case of running into people, we stopped short of Long Point for morning tea and sure enough as we came round the corner to Long Point we could see people in the water - for the Snowy, the water was cold, but then I remembered, we were in Victoria :).
Our next stop, at 12.45pm was Woods Point where repairs from the fires were still underway. V, having ascertained from L that we still had 8.5kms to go, chivvied us to get going, so after an hours respite we reluctantly took to the water once more.
At one stage, for a short distance we paddled through unburnt bush, the transition making an impact on us all - it looked so healthy and vibrant.
Once out into the open country, there were more hazards, both apparent and hidden to watch out for.
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At 3.50pm, after keeping an eye out, we reached out pull out point, tired and happy. After dragging out the boats, L&S departed for the hour long return trip to retrieve the car and trailer from Sandy Point. Meanwhile V and I unpacked the boats and got them ready for loading then sat, relaxing in the sun and idly chatting.
With the higher water level, to our relief, no boat dragging was needed, tho' on the odd occasion I could hear and feel the bottom of my trusty boat scraping across sand ridges. And, as you will have seen on the video, on one gravel race, having chosen the wrong line L and I grounded out resulting in some comic dodgem car antics which actually helped to get our boats moving again.
About 5.10pm S&L returned and we set about loading the boats and all our gear before heading back to our accommodation and a long hot shower.
Trip Notes:
River Levels: McKillops Bridge 1.24m
Jarrahmond 1.58m (9.15am) 1.56m (3.45pm)
Put In: Sandy Point
Take Out: Bete Bolong Tennis Courts
23.7kms
6hrs 20mins
(on water time of approx 4hrs 40mins)
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