Up Joes Creek With A Paddle

After a significant hiatus, I've been getting back out in the kayak. Today I trolleyed down to our local beach and paddled north into the bay. I paddled along Caseys Beach and past Observation Point and pulled out in a small dumping wave midway along Corrigans Beach where Joes Creek forms a big lagoon behind the beach. It was early and the beach was quiet.

I dragged the kayak over the sand to the lagoon and almost capsized launching the kayak into the knee deep lagoon. I had positioned the kayak above a little sand shelf thinking I would just rock forward and slide gracefully into the water. But the stern of the boat got stuck and like a cow in quicksand I wobbled from side to side dangerously close to dunking completely. This must be how it is for Mirage owners launching off the beach.

In the lagoon, I paddled past the wildlife park where there are dozens of different ducks in the water. The Beach Road bridge made a low long tunnel to narrow to paddle through so I palmed along the roof to pass under the road. Passing behind the High School I was a source of great hilarity to the resident inmates but the school bell rang and they went back to their cells.

Passing under the Glenella Road bridge I was running out of water and a cyclist going by looked at me strangely perhaps wondering why I was kayaking in a drainage ditch. The birds love the creek, there were hundreds. Corellas and lorikeets, egrets, spoonbills, cormorants, many different species of ducks and other waterfowl.

On the way back, an old lady walking her dog turned tail and fled as I paddled past, perhaps thinking only monsters come out of creeks. While the couple I met walking their dog along Corrigans Beach thought the whole thing a grand adventure. That's how it is when you do something slightly unusual: you are either a genius or a nutter.