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 :)