Biking Under The Radar

My mountain biking fitness is gradually improving, so today Owen took me to tackle a new challenge: the Under The Radar trail at Cape Pallarenda.

Under the Radar is the white dotted trail above

We had kayaked near here the other day, and it would to be interesting to see the area from a different perspective.

We returned to the carpark via the Lagoon Trail (pink on the map) for about a 16km round-trip. This track passed some flat patches which are sometimes wet and home to lots of birdlife, but which were pretty dry salt flats when we passed them.

I didn’t manage to get many photos from the ride, but I really enjoyed the track – even if I did get a bit too hot by the end and felt a little unwell.

 Still, an ice cream on the Strand afterwards helps to fix a bit of overheating nicely :)

Townsville Sea Kayaking

A couple of weeks ago I went out kayaking on the local Ross River. This time Owen and I headed out to Pallarenda to go sea kayaking.

Putting into the water in Rowes Bay, we paddled off to the north and around the coastline to the west, pulling up again on Shelley Beach.

The red star on the right is the start/finish, the red star at the top is the furthest point we paddled to.

Approaching the 'corner' of the coastline

Taking just a short break as the sun was so hot once off the water, we admired the view briefly from the sparse shade of a twiggy tree before returning to our starting point.

The view to Magnetic Island

A brief but fun little adventure :)

Gentle Kayaking on the Ross River

I’ve been going mountain biking a bit recently with a friend who I met through sailing, and we have obviously been chatting during our rides. This has led to the discovery of more interests in common, including kayaking.

Owen had a spare kayak, and I asked if I could borrow it for a trip to Magnetic Island I hope to make with another friend in the future. Being safety-minded, Owen wouldn’t let me out on the sea in the kayak without being sure that I was competent. I didn’t mind too much, as I respected him taking responsibility in this way, but it was a little frustrating that he didn’t believe I could kayak properly…

Meeting up at his place early in the morning so that we would have the best chance to see wildlife, we got the kayaks strapped onto his trolley wheels and walked them down the suburban roads to the riverway path, and along to a suitable launch site.

Launching under a road bridge between two weirs about 4kms apart, we had a decent flat expanse of river to explore. Heading upriver initially, we kayaked past the beautiful waterlilies hosting little jacana birds.

A jacana from further downstrem

We saw river turtles basking on logs.

I spotted some magpie geese with their tiny brown goslings – unfortunately the little goslings didn’t show too well as my waterproof camera doesn’t perform well in low light, but you can just about make them out as tiny brown blobs at the water's edge, around the feet of the rearmost goose.

Being early, wallabies hadn’t yet been disturbed and they watched us with caution from the riverbank.

We watched egrets fishing

And then we were at the upriver weir.

More beautiful water flowers were here

We crossed to the other riverbank for the downstream journey, to see what else we could spot.

In the end though competitive nature got the best of us, and we paddled back down to the bridge at ‘a fitness pace’. Having reached the bridge in good style, Owen suggested that we carry on down to the other weir then back, as that way I would have paddled 8km and he would feel better about my ability to paddle to Maggie Island. I think that he was a bit miffed I had been able to keep up with him and that he wanted another chance to beat me ;)

At the downstream weir there so many little toad- or froglets – I hope they weren't the introduced cane toads that have such a devastating effect on the native wildlife, although I fear that they were.

There was also a lot of litter that had gathered there, and Owen collected a lot to clear it from the river. A good deed indeed! That done, we returned to our start point and took the kayaks back. What a lovely morning :)

In Pictures: Snorkelling Moreton Island

Labour Day weekend marked the anniversary of our Australian immigration. We went to (a very busy!) Moreton Island, Brisbane, for some snorkelling along the wreck reefs. On the ferry back to the mainland, we were also treated to the truly awesome sight of migrating humpback whales:

[Rather than scrolling down, you might prefer to click on the first image to open the pictures, then click through them]