Friday 11 August 2023 Wallaga Lake: Payne's Island to Dignams Creek

 With a north east breeze forecast to arrive at 2.00pm we left home at 8.30pm headed for Payne's Island at Wallaga Lake. 

Launching at 9.35am, 

we paddled under the bridge - a little melancholic as we had heard that at a recent community meeting , people had voted overwhelmingly in favour of replacing the iconic old wooden bridge with an utilitarian two lane concrete job.

Once away from the traffic noise we had the lake to ourselves and settled down to a quiet and meditative paddle.

Once again the lake is teeming with baby/small jellyfish and the occasional larger ones. 

After entering the mouth of Dignam's Creek we looked for somewhere to pull in so L could fly the drone.  At 11.55am we found a suitable spot and there we happily stayed for the next hour or so.

 

Lunch and droning over, we paddled a little further up the creek, startling the odd school of fish - some of which you might spot toward the end of the drone footage.

Rounding the island we noticed a hawk/falcon repeatedly making feinting dives at small flock of grebes on the water.  I can only think it was trying to frighten the grebes into flight.  It hadn't yet worked out  grebes hate to fly and their standard evasion tactic is to dive under the water and pop up 20+ plus metres away.

Back out in Dignam's Bay we discovered the forecast breeze had arrived a little early. Still on largely sheltered water it alerted us to what we would face once back out in the main body of the lake so we pulled into Snapper Point for a 5min rest before tackling the last leg. It was splashy and cold and took a bit of effort - at least R was happy with the workout.

Pulling into Payne's Island at 2.00pm with spirits buoyed we packed up and returned to Bermi and rewarded ourselves with some delicious gelati (the best on the Far South Coast).

Trip notes:

Put In/Take Out: Payne's Island

11.2kms

Lake closed.