When we were kayaking at Dunns Swamp last month, Christine suggested that we go again and make a day of it with a picnic lunch. Today’s the day to do that. Since Margaret is back driving the school bus after her summer holiday we have to work around her schedule for our outings; Daniel’s, too, as he is working part time at a grocery, Woolworth’s, in Mudgee. Saturday is the perfect day and the weather is fantastic.
We loaded up a picnic lunch, got the trailer hooked up to Lou’s car, and made sure that the kayaks were secured. We didn’t want a recurrence of the flying off kayak this trip. We met up with Margaret in her car with the kids and off we went.
It’s a beautiful drive to Dunns Swamp and nearing the campground and boat launch you drive past and around Pagoda rock formations. These were the backside of the rocks we kayaked past last month.
This being Saturday, the swimming area and campground were much busier and so getting the kayaks unloaded and into the water was a bit of a challenge navigating around lots of small children playing at water’s edge. We finally managed to get us all in kayaks onto the river with Clare on her paddleboard. We opted to go up the river in the opposite direction.
I didn’t think we would see as many rock formations, but I was wrong. It was a beautiful paddle because we started in a wide section of the river where there were reeds lining the bank, a wonderful color of green. We paddled along until there was a fork in the river and we opted to go left into a much narrower channel. Here we did paddle along great Pagoda rock formations.
It’s always so amazing to see things growing out of rock, as in the photo above with the large gum tree appearing to grow straight out of the rock. The photo below shows some ferns that were inside a bit of hollowed out rock. Wherever there is a crack where a bit of debris can lodge it a place where a plant will take hold.
We paddled through narrow winding channels of the river and Daniel would take shortcuts right through the reeds. He and Clare played at knocking into each other and had lots of fun outdoing one another.
It was a really hot day, but out on the river there was a nice breeze and being able to paddle into the shade of rock formations helped keep us cool. We eventually decided to turn back as it was nearing mid-afternoon and we all were wanting lunch. The breeze gave us a workout and we had to paddle quite hard at times to head downriver back to the boat ramp. Taking out was even more of a challenge than putting in because there were twice as many people in the water and at the river’s edge. But we finally managed to get ourselves, our kayaks and our gear back up the boat ramp to the car.
Christine found a relatively shady picnic table near the river’s edge and we enjoyed our picnic lunch.
After lunch came the big job of getting the kayaks loaded onto the trailer and tied down. Because it was hot, we were all a bit uncomfortable and it seemed more difficult to get everything stowed away and tied down. But we were finally successful.
Just as Christine was getting in the car, she asked me for her phone and quietly snapped a photo of a kookaburra that was just 2 feet away on the car’s roof rack. Kookaburra’s are a very special symbol the Caruana family holds as a memory of their sister Angela who died in 2011. Angela was a teacher and she used the call of the kookaburra to teach kids the vowel letters A-E-I-O-U because as a kookaburra begins its laugh, it sounds very much like the vowels. Apparently, Angela could imitate a kookaburra with great proficiency. Ever since her death, when the Caruana siblings see/hear a kookaburra, they say, “Angela’s here.” She was with us at Dunns Swamp.
We got home in good order. We were invited to Margaret’s for dinner, so we had a shower and got cleaned up and headed to Margaret’s. Daniel once again prepared a wonderful dinner of Beef Massaman Curry, and boy was it good. Early in our stay we had dined at a Thai restaurant. Daniel and Christine both ordered the beef Massaman curry. The server came back out and said there was only one serving of the curry, so Christine changed her order. As a result of that, Daniel had invited us for dinner and had made us beef Massaman curry. It was SO delicious! He even packaged up the leftovers and sent us home with them. Well, he cooked beef Massaman curry again tonight. This time, the curry was a tiny bit spicier and had peanuts and cashews added. I think it was even better than the first curry. We all enjoyed it very much. And, again, we went home with the leftovers. Daniel is a very thoughtful young man.
So we came to the end of another wonderful adventure. Kayaking on the Cudgegong River at Dunns Swamp is definitely a great activity and I think we all enjoyed it very much.