01-15-2023: Kayaking

I got up fairly early and when I looked out the back window, I saw this:

Lou says that most evenings and many mornings there will be several kangaroos out in the field. I’m sure Aussie don’t look twice at kangaroos and would rather they disappear. Like deer are for us, they are incredible road hazards, but out there in the field in the morning mist, these two looked beautiful.

I had a morning walk with Lou and Banjo and had a cuppa at the cafe. Lou went off to church while we stayed home catching up on things. Then, we had a big adventure. We decided to go kayaking with Margaret, Clare and Daniel. It was no easy thing to get all of the gear and kayaks loaded. We took 2 vehicles with Lou having a trailer that had 3 single kayaks and 1 double kayak loaded up. Clare had her inflatable paddleboard on top of her car. Off we went to a place called Dunns Swamp. It was about 40 minutes away and we had to drive a gravel road part way. This is a beautiful area, referred to as the central tableland. There are majestic escarpments of sandstone, lots of grassy fields, and forests of gum trees. It’s very diverse.

As we drove, Clare stopped ahead of us and all of a sudden Daniel jumped out of the car and went running down the road behind us. What we learned was the double kayak that was on the top rack of the trailer shot out the back and landed in the road, much to our surprise. It was a good thing they saw it because we were unaware. So, it took some effort to get the kayak reloaded and better secured, and apparently, along the way, we lost several of the rags and rubber mats that were underneath the kayak to prevent scratching.

We got to the boat ramp at Dunns Swamp and unloaded and were finally able to launch, and what a wonderful paddle we had on the Cudgegong River. The Aboriginal name for the area is Ganguddy and the river flows through the Wollemi National Park. The allure of this particular part of the river is that it flows through huge pagoda rock formations. These are clastic sedimentary rock formations that look a bit like stacked slabs. What I learned is that pieces of rock, called clast, wash down into the sediment and are pressured by sand and clay over millions of years to form sandstone. When you look at clastic sandstone you’ll see all kinds of rock debris embedded in the sandstone.

It was a glorious paddle, and because it was later in the day, it wasn’t so terribly hot. The river flowed through walls of rock and around many bends in the river. It was an easy paddle as there was no current and little wind.

We all really enjoyed our afternoon on the river. We will likely return one day during our visit and spend a whole day. The river goes in the other direction, and we should explore it, too.

We loaded up and started our journey home. This time, we had the double kayak so secured that it would never fall off. However, every mile or so, Clare’s car would stop, Daniel would jump out, and recover either a rag or a rubber mat that we lost on the way in. That happened about 5 times. We were amazed that they even saw them, but they did. Daniel even picked up some empty cans along the road that he also took. The sun was setting as we drove home and I shot this photo from the car.

Back at Lou’s, we had leftovers from the night before. After dinner, everyone was engaged in planning our next adventure or two. Margaret is currently on holiday from her school bus driving job, so until the end of January, she is able to go on adventures with us. Everyone has an idea of what we should do and I had done some research, as well, so I have a couple of ideas. Our tomorrow adventure is now planned.

So we came to the end of a wonderful day. Kayaking was fantastic, and to do it with Lou, Margaret and the kids was just terrific.