Dolphin Days

From Black Rock, I pointed the kayak north, and looking into a rainbow of different greys, I paddled north to the Tollgate Islands, around the east side, and, with a wave behind me, I slid into the gap between North and South Tollgate Island and into the clear, sheltered and calm water. A shirtless bloke was lazing on the front of a boat moored near the north island, and he looked at me curiously. “Where had I come from, where was I going,” and what was an old lady doing out here by herself in such a small craft?

An exchange of pleasantries, and then I headed north again, passing a lone seal sleeping by some rocks and over to Three Isle Point, where I turned to follow the coastline west. The northeasterly wind was slowly ticking up, but close in, I was sheltered. I coasted over the reef near Archeron Ledge, the water as clear as I’ve ever seen it around here and continued west hugging the shore. I was increasingly feeling cramped, and my upper back and core muscles were sore and tight from some weight training earlier in the morning.

My endlessly chattering brain had been nattering at me since leaving my home bay, “just paddle minimums¹, don’t push too hard, why not go home now and have a hot shower and a meal, maybe stop and rest for a bit….” On and on and on. As I got near Cullendulla Creek, my pace slowed as I paddled into an outflowing tide, and I was stiff, hungry, a bit chilly, uncomfortable really, and I had done 20 kilometres, so I pulled over for a stretch and a cup of tea from my thermos. Another five kilometres and I would be back.

There were dolphins in the channel between Square Head and Snapper Island, the third group I had passed today, and, paddling into my sheltered home bay, I came across another large pod, clearly fishing on one of the reefs, so I sat for a long while, let the boat drift, and watched as they dived and flashed, around the kayak. One came up with a good sized fish tightly held in grinning jaws.

It is not quite a fortnight since our unsuccessful Mother Woila attempt and barely a day has passed when I have not wondered if I have lost for ever the ability to do hard things. But I haven’t, and today was proof. This morning, with stiff overworked muscles from four days of rock climbing, strength training, trail running and now paddling, I got out of bed in the dark, did my training and chores, packed the kayak and trolleyed the boat to the beach, paddled out solo onto the ocean, and did my planned training not because it was comfortable or easy, but because I vowed I would.

1My mostly official minimum paddle distance is 20 kilometres.