Sunday, February 23, 2020

Pent Up Demand: Moruya to Ulladulla By Sea Kayak


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.  

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