Buckenbowra The Birthday Paddle

The tradition for birthdays, Christmas, and, in truth, virtually any other event celebrated by normal people, in our household is to spend the day adventuring. While most other people go out for dinner, have parties and eat birthday cake, our usual celebration is a good thrashing in the outdoors.

On the occasion of my 57th birthday, despite the Covid lockdown, we could continue the tradition as going out to exercise is still acceptable in Australia and we are lucky enough to live with the ocean and bush on our front and back doorsteps. There is not much I like more than an adventure from my own front door.

For no reason other than we had not done it before, I decided we should paddle up the Buckenbowra River. Without any real planning, I had hoped to get to the spot on the river, about 11 kilometres upstream from the confluence with the Clyde River marked "tidal limit" on the topographic map. If we paddled the shortest route from our home beach to this location the distance would be 46 km return. However, in keeping with the spirit of adventure, I did not measure this out or make any other plans except for packing lunch and noting the tide times.

There was a 2.5 metre swell with a decently long period running from the south and these conditions can frequently give good surfing in the Bay. Accordingly, we decided we would try and catch a few waves before paddling west up the Clyde River to the Buckenbowra River.

The first place we checked had decent waves and I caught a good one in, but Doug was not that keen thinking that the bigger waves were going to result in a decent trashing. So, we backtracked a bit and checked out another favourite area. As suspected, the tide was wrong and the waves were too small. The third area we paddled to had surprisingly good waves that were small but easy to ride and gave rides up to 250 metres long. We caught a half dozen or so waves racking up an extra 3 or 4 kilometres of distance before turning our attention to the main event of the day, the exploration of Buckenbowra River.

We had a decent tidal flow up to the mouth of the Buckenbowra River and easy paddling up the Clyde River. Turning west, then south, we paddled up the calm river past some small farms and rural properties before stopping for lunch on a sandy bank near the Runnyford Bridge. It was pleasant in the sun, a perfect autumn day. Checking our distance, I noted that we had already paddled 23 kilometres and from previous trips I knew the distance back to our local beach from the Buckenbowra-Clyde confluence was 12 or 13 km, so already we were looking at a mid 30 kilometre day.

However, I still hoped to reach the "tidal limit" and the current was still flowing upstream so we continued on the river getting narrower and quieter for another two kilometres. While Doug fussed around digging out his paddling gloves, I noted that we had at least another 8 kilometres return to reach the now elusive "tidal limit" and, no matter how I might ignore it, my butt was sore and I was getting tired.

So, about four kilometres from the tidal limit we turned around. Unfortunately this far up the river the tide had not yet turned so we had to paddle against the current down to the confluence with the Clyde River. We had an extra thermos of hot water and one more tea bag so we had a second tea break on another sand bank while watching the tide continue to run the wrong way.

On the Clyde River the usual headwind was blowing. On every long day I have had up this river there is a head wind blowing, so it was expected. Finally, we reached the bridge, then the long slog out past the breakwater and across two bays before we finally paddled around the last headland with the sun low in the sky to our own local bay. About 41 kilometres for the day, cramped hamstrings and a sore butt, but otherwise another fine self-propelled trip from our own front door.