Pent up demand is a term originally
coined by economists to describe a rapid increase in spending for
some good or service after a period of depressed spending. But those
of us more at home in the backcountry than the mall know pent up
demand as the gung-ho fever that causes an up-tick in avalanche involvements as backcountry travellers pour out into the mountains
when the sun finally comes out after the mother of all winter storms.
Skiing in conditions that lead to pent up demand
Down here on the South Coast of NSW,
Doug and I were certainly feeling the pent-up demand for a few days
kayaking and camping along the coast. A summer of fires and closures
had meant that no-one ventured far from home, never knowing if we
would have a home when we came back. Finally it rained, not near
enough to break the drought, but enough that the last of the local
fires were considered contained and we started thinking about
paddling again.
New Years Eve 2019
No-one felt very fit. In five months,
I had only paddled a dozen times and some of those paddles were
pretty short, but Doug and I had pulled off a 40 kilometre day on
Christmas Day with no special training so paddling from Moruya to
Ulladulla, a distance of roughly 100 kilometres seemed feasible. The
forecast was for light southerly winds with a long period and a big
swell. It would be a trip to learn well the lesson of the bombora.
Doug arranged some reasonably elaborate
car shuttle arrangements. I am not good at organising car shuttles.
I seem to have some spatial black spot in my brain that makes
juggling around which car is where and with how many boats near
impossible. Most of the time I would much rather use public transit
to return to my car after a one way trip but public transit between
Ulladulla and Moruya involves at least two bus transfers and the
critical bus leaving Ulladulla does so only once per day. So, car
shuttle it was.
Launching in the Moruya River
We launched into the Moruya River about
a kilometre from the breakwater. A headland protects the river mouth
to the south and a breakwater to the north. The channel runs swiftly
with the deepest water along side the breakwater. There are always
breaking waves to the south of the channel and on big days the entire
entrance to the river closes out. We had an outgoing tide which
helped with paddling out but conversely tends to make the waves stand
up. People crash and burn, with sometimes disastrous results in
these river bars all the time.
Doug in the surf at Moruya River mouth
I admit to feeling some trepidation as
we approached the river mouth but maybe that is reasonable given the
three metre swell and how close to the breaking waves we were.
However, paddling out turned out to be quite straight forward and we
were soon heading north towards Burrewarra Point. The first time
Doug and I paddled around Burrewarra Point we were so traumatised by
the experience that we opted to take the bus back to retrieve our car
rather than return around the Point by kayak.
Burrewarra Point on a previous trip
A few years on and I am used to
paddling around the bumpy water off Burrewarra Point so was not so
white-knuckled this time. We paddled into Guerilla Bay for a lunch
break tucking into the most protected beach behind the rock reef that
is an island at high tide.
Paddling past Bengello Beach
After lunch we headed north in no
particular hurry to get to camp but not dallying either. The swell
had really picked up in both size and power with the bigger sets
coming in close to five metres and a 10 to 12 second period. Passing
Mosquito Bay there were masses of breaking waves and I was not sure
we were not going to have to detour out to near the Tollgate Islands
to avoid reefs and bomboras but we found a way through.
Views near camp
We found a fabulous camp site with nice
grassy level sites and tremendous views but landing required some
caution as the swell was picking up and the beach steep. The soft
grassy site was particularly appreciated by Doug and I as I had
forgotten to pack our sleeping mats.
Finding unburnt forest
The swell dropped briefly by half a
metre the next day before picking up again and still the long period
with some very energetic waves powering in. We had a nice paddle
north to Depot Beach and a sheltered landing for lunch. Rae and Doug
paddled to the west of Grasshopper Island while Mike and I went
around the east side. Both options had their moments. For Doug and
Rae, a wave closed out the passage behind them, while Mike and I
paddled through an entertaining tidal race off the north side of
Grasshopper Island. There is always a bit of an epic near
Grasshopper Island as you can read about here.
Doug following Rae through the west side of Grasshopper Island
PC, DB.
Continuing north, Doug and Rae had
another narrow escape at Clear Point paddling a gap in the long reef.
I was about to follow them through when a big set powered across and
I turned tail and followed Mike who had sensibly paddled around the
most easterly reef.
Point Upright
About four kilometres from Kioloa, the
only place we knew we could land with certainty in these conditions,
Rae began to vomit. Vomiting is unpleasant at the best of times but
is doubly troubling in a small sea kayak adrift in a big swell with
bumpy seas. Rae, however, is a strong and determined paddler so we
continued paddling, sticking close together to keep an eye on her.
Last time I was out with a vomiting paddler, the whole trip turned
from gloriously fun to dangerously epic very quickly.
Sick paddler under tow
Unfortunately, the four kilometres to
Kioloa was slow paddling in rough conditions and there was a huge
break off O'Hara Head that we had to give wide berth to. Rae was
still vomiting as we paddled into more sheltered waters.
Near Kioloa on a calmer day
Rae pulled out at Kioloa, leaving three
of us to continue on. In search of a more remote campsite, we
paddled four kilometres north looking for a sheltered landing and
finding only crashing waves and frightening conditions. The swell
was so big that the waves were breaking all over the place and even
seeing the beach without getting creamed by a big set was difficult.
It was late in the day and we were all getting fatigued, too weary to
deal with desperate landings or even more desperate rescues so we
returned to a safe landing site and found a pretty good campsite
tucked into a banksia grove.
Camping along the Murramurang Coast
During the night I heard Mike screaming
himself awake from some unknown nightmare and I wondered if he was
dreaming of trying to land on a south facing beach in a five metre
southerly swell. Over night the drizzle turned to light rain and it
was a gloomy morning putting on wet paddling clothes and stowing away
all our now wet and grimy gear.
Doug playing beach master on a previous trip
Some tourists came down to watch us
launch, which we luckily all managed with aplomb. It's always
embarrassing to crash on the beach with an audience. Over the course
of the day the swell lost some of its fury and size. We managed to
paddle to the west of Brush Island, an impossibility the day before,
and found much calmer seas on the north side. Landing at Crampton
Island for lunch required a bit of careful navigating to avoid a
breaking reef but was well worth the leg stretch.
Landing at Crampton Island on a previous trip
The final 14 kilometres to Ulladulla
Harbour felt surprisingly easy given we were up around 100 kilometres
of paddling in three days and it was not even too rough around Warden
Head. Neil and Rae obliged with the final leg of the car shuttle by
picking us up and taking Mike, Doug and I south to Moruya.
Near Warden Head on a previous trip
Most of these photos are from previous trips as I ended up with a serious dearth of decent photos from this trip.
