With about 100 mm of rain in the last
36 hours and a deluge in progress, it was clearly not a morning for
bouldering down at the Esplanade. But, I wanted to do something
before we went out kayaking in the afternoon, so I went off with a
brolly and a rough plan to walk a loop around the local area. On a
previous walk I had seen a rough road leading east into some bushland
but the gate at the start was full of the usual Australian signs
forbidding entry. On that occasion, I was on the way home so I
walked on by, but this morning, I decided to do what any real
Australian would do – ignore authority.
Kayaking in Moreton Bay
Initially dirt, the road then changed
to tarmac, but, off to the side of the road I noted a dirt track
heading into the trees. I left the road and soon found myself doing
what I often seem to do – going uphill on a downhill mountain bike
track. I followed this track up over a nice flowing trail and
eventually came out at a big water tank. A really sketchy trail
headed up a ridge above the water tank and I followed this until it
ended in thick bush. The clay track surface was super slippery
descending in my worn out running shoes. On the way down, I followed
a bike track on the other (south) side of the tarmac road which
switchbacked very gently down through casuarina forest. Apparently
these are the Palmer trails. They don't seem as popular as some,
probably because cyclists actually have to ride up hill (a very short
hill) to the start instead of driving.
In the afternoon, we took the kayaks up
to Yorkeys Knob to see how the wave was coming in. The wind has been
less than forecast and the low tides are fairly high right now so we
weren't altogether optimistic. Everything has to come together for
the Yorkeys wave – low tide of under 1.2 m (ideally) and a good
easterly wind to blow up a swell. It all looked pretty sad when we
got there, but there really is no point looking at something from
afar, you have to get up to it. So we launched the boats and went
out for a look.
Leaving Peel Island
The waves were certainly rideable,
although coming in a little too close together as they tend to do
when locally generated. I had quite a few of those super easy rides
where you don't even need to steer, just sit on the wave and ride
into the beach. Recently, there has been a lot of dredging activity
in Moon River and the silt is dumped out in the surfing area. The
shifting sandbars seem to be changing the shape of some of the waves
coming in, and today the waves were frequently coming from two
different directions and overlapping. A big squall came in while we
were surfing and pounded the surface of the water. I sure wished our
underwater camera would come back from warranty as the sky, the sea
and the rain made amazing images.
The water was very brown from all the
recent rain and, even though I managed to get four eskimo rolls –
still shaky at the finish – I didn't manage to watch my paddle
throughout. I think this was a combination of murky water and simply
forgetting to watch the paddle right through to the finish position.
I had tied a piece of green fabric to my shaft so I could follow that
with my eyes, but, through the brown gloom I could barely see it.
Next trick is to tie on a bit of our bright yellow floating tow rope.
Perhaps that will help me get through solidly to the correct finish
position.
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