As veterans of opting out, it never
occurs to us to do anything except opt out of the various and
increasingly common commercial holidays that punctuate the year.
This year, however, I was trying to visit my Mum in Sydney, but that
trip was put off by the extensive and overwhelming bush-fires
ravaging the coast and the consequent highway closures.
Summer 2019
We were, however, invited to lunch at a
friends house in Nelligen. What better way to opt out than paddle to
our lunch engagement. In Monty Python fashion, we would be paddling
against the tidal current in both directions so weren't sure how long
the 18 km one way trip would take.
Tollgate Islands on the horizon
Accordingly, we allowed ample time, and
left our local beach right on 8 am. The Tollgate Islands looked
interesting in the morning light as we paddled past Snapper Island
northwest to the bridge over the Clyde River. About 50 minutes to
the bridge.
Snapper Island
Upstream of the bridge there are lots
of oyster farms, easy to paddle past on the high tide and then a
couple of small islands, unimaginatively named Big Island and Little
Island. The shortest distance to Nelligen is to west of both. The
river between Batemans Bay and Nelligen is generally fairly quiet and
it was so today. Pleasant paddling upstream past swans and eagles.
At 11.00 am we pulled up to the steps near our friends house and had
a swim in the clear cool water before going along to lunch.
Black Swan
And then the journey back. We got away
at 4.00 pm with the standard summer northeasterly blowing. The way
the river winds downstream we were able to sail quite a bit but the
last 3 or 4 kilometres was into a steady headwind and I started to
feel tired. We got out for a brief leg stretch at the bridge, and
then it was a steady paddle out the channel until we got to the end
of the breakwater and our sails helped a little bit.
Fire Red Sun
Our local beach had a bit of a shore
dump, pretty normal with a summer northeasterly, and we were glad to
arrive. The return journey was perhaps 15 minutes longer than
paddling up. A bit over 6 hours paddling, I think we earned
Christmas lunch.
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