Rock gardens and surf

 

I finally managed to get to paddle with the guys from the 'south'. Not that far south really but enough to have to plan it in advance to catch up for a paddle. They are the 'wild' guys, the only paddlers I know in person leaveing within reach that enjoy surfing the beach with the sea kayaks and like to get close to rocks.

Some surf at the beach

Going through some passages

We met last weekend to play around. They were the locals and I the visitor. They showed me a beach to surf, some rock gardens, a couple of narrow passages, some cave/canyon formation, another beach to surf and back to the river entrance and the cars to exchange vids and photos from the memory cards. Thank Josh for the GoPro view, Joel for the stills and Wade for posing for the camera :-)

View from inside the cave

View from ouside the cave



View from the side of the cave

We started from Minamurra boat ramp. Although we didn't get even 5km away from the launching point we finished paddling a bit over 15km. Going out and back in a surf beach several times adds distance in the end. The highlight for me were the rock gardens. In my area we have lots of cliffs but all the rocks at the bottom are too close to the walls and directly exposed the ocean swell. The coast down there is more rugged. When the swell comes from one direction you can play around this corner, when it comes from the other side you can hide behind that bend. There were also many rocky formations with deep water and a few meteres from the walls behind. Ideal to play with. In one of those passages I thought I would get stuck on top of the rocks. However the kayak sliped down on the wet stones.

Almost stuck

Paddling out after slipping down from on top of the rock on the right

 A very nice play day that I look forward to repeat...