After a wet spring, the Durras Lake bar opened up. This, of course, raised all sorts of ideas for new paddle trips; the one I was most keen on, required launching at the far NW end of Durras Lake, paddling the length of the lake (about six kilometres) and then paddling out through the bar and heading south to our local beach.
Accordingly, I went out one day to see if it was possible to launch sea kayaks into Cumbralaway Creek where it crosses under the Mount Agony Road. Although the topographic map marks this point as the tidal limit on Cumbralaway Creek, it must be a very big tide indeed, as the creek was a small, vegetation choked ditch, and clearly not navigable by sea kayaks.
Similarly, I looked at launching from Durras Drive into one of the southern arms of the lake. This was possible, but only at a very high tide, and there was virtually no parking. Thus the only reliable place to launch turned out to be down near the mouth of the lake; in which case paddling around the lake before exiting out to the ocean started to seem contrived.
The idea went onto the back burner for some weeks and I did not think of it again until Doug organised the Sunday paddle when I was otherwise engaged and planned to cross Durras bar in two directions (out and in).
The standard summer northeasterly was forecast so we got away from our home beach before 9 am and rapidly crossed the glassy waters of the Bay to North Head. From North Head to Durras Lake beach we had a light headwind which only really started picking up to around 10 knots as we paddled from Wasp Island to the mouth of Durras Lake.
After my swim of shame a couple of weeks ago, I was well prepared for this surf entry with a helmet and by stowing away my paddle leash. There is a small rock reef right in front of the Lake opening and this reduced the magnitude of the swell and it was actually a very easy paddle - except for a strong outgoing current - into Durras Lake.
It would have been nice to have both the time and the energy to paddle around Durras Lake but with the tide rapidly falling, it was looking like the bar might completely dry up. We had a good lunch break and stretch out of the kayaks, and then rode the current easily back out to sea and into a 12 knot northeasterly wind.
Even using my sail, I got slower and slower as we headed south as I got more and more tired. The last couple of kilometres into our home bay felt like a slow grind, even with a tail wind. Turns out sitting on your arse driving a car all over the place is not good training for anything.
No comments:
Post a Comment