Ross River Paddling

My good friend Owen and I made plans for one last trip out together before my move down south. He let me pick what to do, and as he had recently seen freshwater crocodiles on the river I wanted to do this too! I knew there wasn’t much chance of seeing them, so I was a bit torn between the idea of a flat river paddle or heading out to sea for more exciting paddling, but in the end I opted for the chance of croc spotting.

Meeting at his place, we loaded the kayaks up onto his trolley wheels and walked them down to the river. We had very heavy rain the night before, and there was fresh erosion and the river level was raised considerably. It is normally a bad idea to paddle in a flooded river, but the river here is managed by weirs that control the flow, so apart from being deeper and wider, it wasn’t really any different to normal.

The paddle itself was very simple, just up and down a section of the flat, swollen river. What we were really there for was the wildlife, and Owen tried really hard to spot a croc for me. The freshwater crocodiles (‘freshies’) are much smaller than their dangerous-to-humans salt water cousins. They live off a diet of mainly fish, which they catch with their smaller, narrower jaws, and they do not pose a threat to humans if you respect their personal space. Apparently it is even safe to swim with them.

We saw lots of jacanas on this trip, normally they are quick to fly off when they see you, but this time they seemed bolder than usual and we were able to watch them for longer. We even saw a few families of male jacanas with their chicks, scampering over the lily pads. Very cute!

I came across this jacana nest complete with two eggs, which we admired for a short time, neither of us having ever seen one before. They have a very distinctive design on the eggs, almost like paint has been drizzled all over them.

We paddled upriver as far as the next weir, below which it is a bit rocky. It was here that I had a possible croc sighting – an animal definitely moved into the water near my kayak. The sound of the water caught my attention, and I looked around just in time to see an animal’s back curving into the water. It was a flexible back, so definitely not a river turtle, but I just saw it curve into the water as the creature dived down, so I have no idea what it was. It could have been a little croc, or a large lizard, or possibly even a really big eel, though I don't know why an eel would have been out of the water basking in the sun.

Disappointed not to have been quick enough to get a good view, we headed back down the opposite riverbank. Here we had the huge good fortune to spot a nest of Australian darters, or snakebirds, with two large chicks. 

As we watched the chicks, the father returned to the nest and we got to watch him feeding them. It was a privilege to watch; you could not have seen them from the land, but we had a prime view from down on the water. The chicks pestered their father and rammed pretty much their whole heads down his beak to get to the food, it really did look uncomfortable! 

A sad thing about the river at the moment, possibly because of the heavy rain, was the amount of rubbish floating around in it. Mainly plastic and glass bottles, but also cans, polystyrene cups, rubber and plastic balls, chocolate wrappers, broken buckets etc.

Along the way we collected a lot to dispose of in the appropriate rubbish or recycling bins, but there was far more left out there. I hope there are more river users out there like Owen, who try to have a positive impact on this litter problem.