Slot Hunting

This year the kayak squad Christmas party was at Bittangabee Bay. Three of us arrived early with the idea of paddling somewhere. That somewhere turned into paddling north towards Saltwater Bay. Initially, we thought we would go as far as Saltwater Bay and practice some surf landings but once we had paddled out of Bittangabee Bay we found a very low swell and the game of slot hunting was on.

There is rarely a slot, cave or gauntlet that Nick won't paddle into, particularly when in a plastic boat in low swell conditions so we made our way up the coast, backing into slots and caves, sometimes paddling in bow first and turning around in calm pools behind rock walls. Once we found that the slot we thought was a straight in gauntlet was actually a small rock island and we were able to paddle in one side, turn and paddle out the other.

While Nick and I were slot hunting, Doug was walking along the cliff top doing some cave hunting and managed to scramble down small ledges to a big cave with a gauntlet in front. When we all met back at Bittangabee Bay, and heard about the cave, Nick and I, started to worry that we had missed on of the gauntlets. Nick was so concerned, that next morning he dashed along the cliffs to make sure we had indeed paddled into the pool behind the gauntlet. Phew, we did, a fact that became clear looking at Doug's pictures after the event.

On Sunday, we had a “social” paddle with 16 kayakers out on the water. Somehow, Nick and I missed the entire group because again, the swell was low and the allure of all those caves and slots was just too much so we slowly paddled south to Green Cape, poking into everything we could. A few kilometres from Green Cape we caught up with Doug who had been left behind by the social group as he too was slot scouting.

Finally, there was no more cliff line and we were in the protected water just to the north of Green Cape. The sea off-shore was lumpy and we could see a line of white caps marching across the horizon. No trip to Green Cape is complete without sticking your bow out around the point into the almost always rough water. With a solid southwesterly wind blowing, the sea off Green Cape was churned up into a steeply peaking sea. Within a few minutes we were all wet through from the boats bashing into the seas and the wind blowing spray off our paddles into our faces.

We turned tail, paddled back catching the occasional wave and were back on the beach as the social paddlers were swimming. After lunch, Doug went off to Green Cape Lighthouse and walked back along the Light to Light track while I took my bouldering pad and shoes down on to the rock platforms south of Bittangabee Bay. There is THE best bouldering down there and I had a happy few hours until I felt a wee bit too tired being so high above my one bouldering pad with no spotter and it was time to go back to camp.

All Photos: DB